Syndication takes a holographic view of company
05/11/08
A North Wales company at the forefront of
animated holographic technology has received £500,000 investment
from xénos, the Wales Business Angel Network, Finance Wales and the
Welsh Assembly Government.
View Holographics Ltd of Conwy is developing
specialist printing technology capable of producing large-scale
holographic images for use in the global advertising, architecture
and business-to-business markets and will use the investment to
fund the first phase of this development project.
The investment includes £250,000 equity
syndicated from several private individuals, including four xénos
business angels and Finance Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government
has awarded a £250,000 grant to the company through its SMARTCymru
innovation programme.
View Holographics has already secured some
significant clients including Saatchi and Saatchi and Shell. It
recently completed work for the National Museum of Wales which
involved producing several holograms from historic artefacts which
needed to be kept out of public viewing for their own protection.
The holograms will allow visitors to view virtual 3D versions of
the artefacts.
Stewart Jones, who has been involved in the
commercialisation of technology for a number of years and helped
develop the Sony Playstation™ ‘Buzz’ range of games, established
the company along with fellow directors, Simon Cotton and Richard
Melling.
“We’ve been working on the development of
printing technologies that will allow us to produce much larger and
animated holograms than previously possible. Holography offers so
much potential for a wide range of applications, from marketing and
advertising through to architectural opportunities. This opens up a
massive global market,” he said.
“In order to reach that market we needed
additional funding and the equity investment from the xénos
business angels and Finance Wales and the £250,000 SMARTCymru grant
will provide the injection to take the business to the next
level.”
Retail window displays, outdoor advertising at
bus shelters, tube stations and cinemas and point of sale units are
among some of the products the company is developing.
View Holographics is working closely with
Technium OpTIC at St Asaph, Denbighshire, in developing and
exploiting the technology.
Nick Bradley, xénos regional manager for North
Wales, said: “View Holographics is pioneering technology that has
enormous global potential. The syndication of investors, including
business angels and Finance Wales, will ensure the company can now
fully exploit this technology and maximise growth
opportunities.”
Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for the Economy and
Transport, said the SMARTCymru support from the Assembly was
designed to help businesses at different stages of their
development, from early stage technical and commercial feasibility
studies right through to exploiting and marketing a new
product.
“We want to help young technology businesses
develop and commercialise their ideas.
Funding from the Assembly Government can help
innovative technology companies like View Holographics take their
product to the next stage of development. In this instance funding
was provided for industrial research to establish proof of concept
and to enable the company to take that concept to the
pre-competitive development stage or prototype level.
“I am also pleased that View Holographics is
benefiting from the technology support network within OpTIC
Technium and from working alongside like minded companies
developing new and innovative products.