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October 25, 2007
From Austria : Semiconductor 2.0
The title is the post is the trademarked tag-line of Austrian startup, NanoIdent. Unlike a lot of 2.0 startups this reporter has looked at over the past two years, this one feel like it is the beginning of something new.
The four year old Austrian company is specialized in developing and manufacturing printed semiconductors using organic and inorganic materials. It's already generating sales of single digit millions, mainly in customer-financed product development projects – not trials -- and it has visibility on ticking that figure up to a two digit million one next year.
The Linz-based startup has its own fab. It is not an indulgence, it is a necessity, according to Klaus G Schroeter, co-founder and CEO. "Our blue-chip customers won't abandon their old platforms for something new unless they can see that what we offer can be produced in volume," said Schroeter.
The recently completed fab in Austria is able to produce some 40K square meters of wafer chip surface a year (a phrase that is a throwback to silicon semiconductors).
This is what printable semiconductors from this startup look like
NanoIdent is working with companies in the diagnostics, biometrics, and industrial sensor markets in a classic OEM model.
Low cash burn
The company's co-founding duo is a scientific innovator, Franz Padinger, and an experienced entrepreneur, Klaus G. Schroeter. Padinger sold his last startup, QSEL, which developed the solar cell technology to Konarka Technologies, which is a well-funded startup based in the US.
Before teaming up with Padinger, he founded BioID AG, a biometrics company specialized in simultaneous recognition of face, voice and lip movements and employed 80. It was acquired by a publicly traded company.
Your a:c euro reporter first researched the company back in 2005 and since then it has gone from prototype of one type of optical sensor to being able to offer several kinds of sensors, including diagnostic sensors (for DNA-based blood tests, for example), as well as the handheld reader technology to go with them.
A lab on a chip or handheld diagnostics product
It has done this on a remarkably small amount of invested capital, some €12.5M including debt. It is currently raising €10M in equity financing and hopes to attract family offices or high net worth individuals to the round.
Talent Seeks The Edge
Nanoident employs about 65 scientists and specialized researchers from 12 different nations. "Recruiting talent from around the world is not that difficult. Everyone wants to be on the forefront … to be part of the first company to produce sensors and sensor systems in printed semiconductors," said Schroeter.
The Austrian venture recently moved the headquarters of its diagnostic business unit, BioIdent, to California with a Sand Hill Rd address.
A mobile phone concept with a biometric sensor from NanoIdent
View Nanoident
Posted on October 25, 2007 08:26 AM | Posted to Biometrics | Disease/Clinical Diagnostics | News And Updates | Semiconductors | Permalink
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