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September 08, 2006
Scottish ForthDD To Raise New Capital For HDTV Market Entry
The European TechTour is going to Scotland this December, as we posted yesterday, and one of the companies that will probably be there is Forth Dimension Displays (ForthDD).
The startup, formerly known as CRLO Displays, is going to be raising its second round of financing soon, in order to to back the launch of its all-digital microchip imagers into two high potentional consumer markets, namely high-definition TVs and miniature digital projectors.
The company, located on shores of the River Forth near Edinburgh, has been successful in getting its technology into military markets where it’s used in head-displays for simulation and training, as well as in medical diagnostics and surgical applications. Its California operations help reach these market niches.
But now its time to go large. The firm's CEO Leslie Polgar, who came on board shortly after the VC round, gave us an email interview recently. He said the firm had some encouraging interest from potential customers at a recent trade show where he demonstrated a 43” Rear Projection HDTV using his firm's technology.
“Our Time Domain Imaging (TDITM) technology is the best and fastest route for TV makers to market a HDTV at less than $1000 street price. The image quality we demonstrated was well-received by the many TV makers and industry analysts and experts who saw it in June.”
At the same exhibition (the SID Business Conference), one of ForthDD’s customers successfully demonstrated a full-color pocket projector using the TDI technology. He didn't mention it in the interview, but the "customer" he is talking about is Light Blue Optics, which is backed by 3i. We've covered it here earlier this year (See link below).
ForthDD raised an “A” round of financing in September 2004 from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures and Amadeus Partners. They invested $19M.
Polger said:
“The past twelve months have witnessed significant progress on all fronts: product development, manufacturing, market penetration as well as in people and infrastructure. So we are looking forward to raising our B Round of financing. In May, we were named a Red Herring Euro 100 Company winner in recognition of this success and of our prospects for the future. We expect to be a $100 Million revenue business by Year 2010."The company lays claim to 60 patents mainly on its single-chip liquid crystal on silicon technology The firm says it uses “the world’s fastest switching liquid crystal to achieve a 100% digital imaging solution” and has an advanced pilot-scale manufacturing operation at its Scotland location.
If Polgar is successful in leading his company to reach nine digit sales that would make a second success story for an Edinburgh area high tech in recent times, that is, since the tech speculation bubble burst.
The other is Wolfson Microelectronics, which supplies Apple and Sony with chips, had sales of about £100 last year, a market cap of £598M, and employs 300. It delivered its early backer Scottish Equity Partners a 70 times return on its investment. The chart shows a post-ipo performance that is looking good. Chart Source: DigitalLook.com
Read - Forth Dimension Looks For Big TV Share (ft)
Read - Light Blue Optics (a:c euro)
Posted on September 8, 2006 05:17 AM | Posted to Digital imaging | Displays | Permalink
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