US materials group gets $15m for China, Korea push
A group of investors including GSR Ventures has committed $15 million to C3Nano, a US-based supplier for the touchscreen and digital display industry looking to expand its footprint in China and Korea.
Other contributors included Xinjiang Guoli Minsheng Equity Investment, Phoenix Venture Partners and Nissha Printing. The Series D round brings the company’s total funding to $37 million.
The capital will support a global sales push through the construction of manufacturing operations in China and initiatives to increase production capacity in Korea. It will also be applied to new technology development in the US.
Founded in 2010 as a Stanford University chemical engineering laboratory spin-out, C3Nano targets the emerging flexible digital screen market through the development of transparent conductive inks and films. The company aims to use these materials as a replacement for the rare and increasingly expensive metals currently needed for the production of touch sensors. It maintains manufacturing facilities in Korea as well as a sales and technical support presence in China and Taiwan.
“C3Nano has demonstrated clear business foresight in driving industry-leading technology, and has built one of the world’s most advanced materials, R&D and engineering organizations,” Kevin Yin, a partner at GSR said in a statement. “They continue to innovate, setting the very best market performance standard through each product delivered.”
Investor interest in flat screen technology has been supported by expectations for growth in smart phone demand and the need to introduce manufacturing efficiencies as production increases. Activity has focused largely on organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) which allow for brighter, thinner and more energy efficient screens than those using traditional liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma technology.
Previous private equity activity in this space includes growth rounds for OLED technology developers Kyulux and Kateeva as well as QD Vision, a company that focuses on new color display technologies for LCD monitors. Last month, Polaris Capital agreed a $35 million exit for Clean Surface Technology, a components supplier for producers of LCD screens, touch panels, semiconductors and OLEDs.
GSR focuses on early and growth stage technology companies with substantial operations in China. It claims more than $1 billion under management and maintains offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and the US.
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