Press release
Lund, Sweden June 18, 2012
Swedish touch screen pioneer FlatFrog closes €20 million funding round led by Intel Capital FlatFrog Laboratories AB, a Swedish developer of disruptive touch screen technologies, announced today that it has closed a €20 million funding round led by Intel Capital. Intel Capital joins the existing investors, international financial investor Invus and founding investor Sunstone Capital. FlatFrog intends to use the funds to expand its world-class team during 2012 in order to accelerate the development and commercialization of its multi-touch technologies for consumer electronics products in the personal computing ecosystem. “Since we began developing our unique multi-touch technology more than five years ago, our goal has been to bring supreme multi-touch technologies to the mass market by providing flawless user experiences at affordable prices”, states Christer Fåhraeus, CEO/Chairman and Founder at FlatFrog. “At the right price-points and with the right technology, we believe every screen in the world will be touch-enabled. This new investment round, and the collaboration opportunities created by teaming with Intel Capital, will allow us to run even faster to reach our goal.” By using sophisticated algorithms to track light travelling inside the cover glass of a screen, FlatFrog’s Planar Scatter Detection technology provides instant and perfect detection of up to hundreds of simultaneous touches and drags. FlatFrog’s PSD technology is based on optics instead of the traditional capacitive electronic fields used in the vast majority of today’s high-end touch-enabled mobile devices. As a result, touch screens based on PSD detect not only input from bare fingers, but also from gloved fingers, passive styli and many other common objects such as pencil erasers. “Creating a perfect touch experience at very low price-points, in a way that is easy to manufacture and that can scale from small to very large sizes, is extremely complicated”, adds Christer Fåhraeus. “We literally have had top scientists working for years on our algorithms, opto-electronics and opto-mechanics. This new financing round will take us to a new level. We’re very excited to have Intel Capital join the FlatFrog investor base.“ Flatfrog was founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneurs Ola Wassvik and Christer Fåhraeus. The company holds more than 60 patent families in optical wave-guide touch technology. Recently, FlatFrog began shipping the first product based on its technology, the 32” FlatFrog Multitouch 3200, the slimmest high-performance 32” multi-touch screen in the market. For further information, visit www.flatfrog.com or contact: Name Christer Fåhraeus Alexandra Jerselius E-mail cf@flatfrog.com alexandra.jerselius@brandpr.se Telephone +46 705 609000 +46 704 102104
FlatFrog Laboratories AB is based in Lund, in the technologically expansive Öresund region. It was co-‐founded in 2007 by optics expert Ola Wassvik and inventor Christer Fåhraeus, serial entrepreneur and now chairman of the Board. FlatFrog develops advanced opto-‐electronic hardware, revolutionizing the touch industry with its patented optical in-‐glass PSD technology providing true multi-‐touch systems that allow a superior user experience at low cost. FlatFrog offers a uniquely smooth and precise touch control with 40 simultaneous touch points in screen formats ranging from 5” to 100”+. The slim form factor favours easy mounting in any environment. Flatfrogs technology is covered by more than 60 patent families. Applications, developed by a multitude of VAR partners, include multi-‐touch table-‐tops, digital signage, interactive whiteboards, point-‐of-‐ sale, gaming and medical displays, and also consumer electronics such as tablets, Ultrabooks and All-‐In-‐One computers. FlatFrog investors include Invus, Promethean, Sunstone Capital and Fårö Capital. (www.flatfrog.com)