April 5, 2012 – MMD Newswire — Semiconductor technology developer Polyera Corporation pulled in $24.5 million in Series C funding, with all existing investors joining co-leaders Chengwei Capital and Tsing Capital, both in China. Polyera’s technology platform is "both revolutionary and scalable," said Michael Li, Partner at Tsing Capital.
Polyera will accelerate development activities, and put a significant portion of the funding into its Asia-Pacific operations, preparing for market launch. Polyera’s semiconductor materials are truly flexible. The company’s technology allows semiconductor-based products, such as displays and photovoltaic panels, to be fabricated on flexible substrates. Advantages include flexibility, as well as lighter weight, thinner, and more robust products by replacing glass substrates with plastic.
Polyera envisions "radically new product designs" from the technology, especially for "post-PC" display-based products, such as smartphones and media tablets. Using flexible semiconductors on a plastic substrate, device designers can change display size without considering added weight or thickness. At the same weight and dimensions, smartphones could incorporate displays that expand to two or three times their original surface area, said Philippe Inagaki, founder and CEO of Polyera, giving one example. Other possibilities include unbreakable, thin, ultra-light-weight displays worn on the body.
In 2007, BASF Future Business GmbH joined Polyera to develop and commercialize new organic semiconductors and dielectrics for use in CMOS-analog printed circuits over several years.
Polyera makes high-performance functional materials for the electronics and opto-electronics industries. For more information, visit www.polyera.com.
Chengwei Capital an independent venture capital fund in China.
Tsing Capital a leading cleantech venture capital firm in China. China Environment Fund, established and managed by Tsing Capital, is a series of funds in China with a focus in cleantech- and environment-related investments. Further information can be found at www.tsingcapital.com.
Solvay is an international chemical group and an investor in Polyera. Solvay SA (SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg:SOLB.BB, Reuters:SOLBt.BR)
I am a battery and material science expert, retired from a US major cooperation and now reside in Taiwan.
I am very interested in knowing more about the progress of Polyera and related Solar Paint technologies.