Kovio raises $20 Million in Series E financing
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 16 July 2009, 18:23 IST   |    1 Comments
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Kovio raises $20 Million in Series E financing
Bangalore: Kovio, a privately held company that develops semiconductor products using printed silicon electronics and thin-film technology, has raised $20 million in series E financing. With this round of funding, Kovio plans to commence volume shipments of its RF Barcodes, a new category of barcode that leverages low cost and eco-friendly printed electronics. "This capital is required to volume shipments of the first printed RF Barcodes in the industry," said Amir Mashkoori, President and CEO, Kovio. It would be used for its technology for printing chips in a similar way that inkjets print on paper. This round of funding is raised from the current investors of the company - Bessemer Venture Partners, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Harris & Harris Group, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mitsui Ventures, Northgate Capital, Panasonic Venture Group, Pangaea Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures and Yasuda Enterprise Development. This funding from the existing investors of the company brings the total amount raised to $80 million till date. RF Barcodes are printed using the Kovio's proprietary silicon inks and graphics printing technologies. Kovio's RF Barcodes are designed to securely enable a wide range of digital information for everyday consumer products, including product details, direct access to Web sites, nutritional information or even promotional programs. The digital information enabled by the company's RF Barcodes can be accessed through mobile phones. Kovio is using its printed silicon platform to cut the cost of making the tiniest chips and also to reduce the time to make them. Founded in 2001, Kovio hopes to make radio frequency identification (RFID) chips at a reasonable price that could be used for different products ranging from transit tickets to consumer products. It would be used for reliable tracking of products considering the data shared across the internet. The company has around 60 employees.

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