Omni-ID nabs $21 mln

Rochester, New York-based Omni-ID, a provider of industrial RFID tags and visual tagging systems, has secured $21 million in funding. The investors were Trillium International, GE Ventures, Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners and YFY Group. In addition to the funding, Brian Model of Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners, Ralph Taylor-Smith of GE Ventures, Bingyi Lin of YFY Group and George Daddis of Omni-ID have been added to Omni-ID’s board of directors.

PRESS RELEASE

ROCHESTER, NY–(Marketwired – January 19, 2016) – Omni-ID, the leading global supplier of high-performance, industrial RFID tags and ProVIEW visual tagging systems today announced it has raised $21 million to expand its global presence and product portfolio to support accelerating demand for its IoT based solutions for industry.

This announcement follows a year of growth for Omni-ID, including exponential increases in demand for its enterprise asset management and manufacturing solutions. Omni-ID, already the #1 supplier and manufacturer of industrial RFID tags globally, now boasts the only IoT based e-paper solution for material flow management, ProVIEW. The system is the first to replace commonly used paper based labeling to enable dynamic control of material flows in manufacturing. The company’s existing customer base comprises some of the largest automotive, energy, technology and government entities around the globe.

“We’ve experienced a remarkable level of growth over the past several years — a true testament to the value and quality of the solutions that we’re providing to the marketplace,” said George E. Daddis, Jr. PhD, CEO of Omni-ID. “This investment will continue to fuel our growth with additions to the engineering and global sales teams allowing us to keep up with the strong demand for our products and solutions. Additionally, to support our growing customer base, we will be opening new offices in Germany and India in the coming weeks — adding to our current US, UK and China locations.”

Leading this investment round were current Omni-ID investor Trillium International, along with new investment from GE Ventures, Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners and YFY group, a current Omni-ID partner and the world’s leading e-paper manufacturer.

“For years, Omni-ID has been the leader in developing and providing industrial RFID solutions for asset tracking,” said Jim Stoffel, Trillium International. “We’ve continued to invest in the company as they leverage their proven technical competencies and deep customer relationships to solve one of the most critical problems of 21st century capital goods manufacturing — material flows. They’ve developed the next ‘big thing’ and the momentum is growing. We’re pleased to continue our support as the company accelerates to meet the growing customer demand for its industrial IoT based solutions.”

“Omni-ID’s technologies are creating a new standard for advanced manufacturing,” said Ralph Taylor-Smith, GE Ventures. “We’re constantly on the lookout for companies with game-changing technology to drive the digital industrial era — we quickly identified Omni-ID as one of those companies. With their strong leadership role in their existing markets, technical expertise and market knowledge — they’ve developed a truly intuitive product in ProVIEW that simply addresses the issues plaguing manufacturers today because of static, un-trackable paper-based systems.”

With this investment, Brian Model of Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners, Ralph Taylor-Smith of GE Ventures, Bingyi Lin of YFY group and George Daddis of Omni-ID have officially joined Jim Stoffel and Jose Coronas of Trillium International on Omni-ID’s board of directors.

About Omni-ID
Based in Rochester, NY, Omni-ID has developed original, patented technologies for on-metal and visual tagging to enable a broad range of applications to improve asset tracking, supply chain management and work-in-process. Omni-ID is the leading supplier of RFID tags and visual tagging systems for Manufacturing & Logistics, Energy, IT Assets and Tool Tracking. Omni-ID’s versatile family of products provides a complete range of tags and auto-ID solutions for tracking and identification challenges, with unprecedented accuracy, in any environment. For more information, visit www.omni-id.com.

About Trillium International
Trillium International is a Rochester, N.Y. based private equity firm managing early stage and growth equity funds. The investments are primarily in technology companies in North America, Europe and the Far East. Trillium International partners have extensive early stage/private equity investment and management experience, having been chief executive officers, presidents, operating executives, and board members of a wide variety of startups, joint ventures, and Fortune 100 multinationals. http://trilliuminternationalllc.com/

About GE Ventures
GE Ventures identifies, scales and accelerates ideas that will help make the world work better. Focused on the areas of software, advanced manufacturing, energy and healthcare, GE Ventures combines equity investing, new business creation, licensing and technology transfer to deliver an innovation platform designed to drive growth for partners and GE. For more information, please visit www.geventures.com or follow on Twitter (@GE_Ventures) and LinkedIn.

About Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners
Since 1999, the team at Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners (SGEP) has been investing in growth stage businesses. By developing trusted relationships with experienced entrepreneurs, SGEP supports its portfolio companies through the most dynamic phases of their lifecycles. Based in Tampa, FL, SGEP invests in companies where an entrepreneur is applying proven technology to solve a business problem. These technology-enabled businesses, located in the southeastern United States, typically generate at least $3M of revenue and are profitable. Our target investment size is $1M to $5M in each portfolio company. For more information, visit www.StonehengeGrowthEquity.com

About YFY Group
Founded in 1924, YFY is an investment company with a diversified portfolio encompassing the world’s leading maker of electronic paper, the world’s largest contract maker of RFID inlays, the leading specialty paper supplier in Asia, a leading packaging provider in Greater China, one of the leading financial services company in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s leading consumer products company. Through its subsidiary, YFY also manages the leading Taiwanese biotech venture fund. www.yfy.com