Stantum Technologies Raises $13 Million

Stantum Technologies, a Bordeaux, France-based developer of multi-touch sensing technologies, has raised $13 million in Series B funding. CDC Innovation and Auriga Partners co-led the round, and were joined by return backer XAnge Private Equity.

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

Stantum Technologies (www.stantum.com), a pioneer developer of multi-touch sensing technologies, announced today it has secured $13 million in Series B funding. CDC Innovation and Auriga Partners co-led the round with XAnge Private Equity as historical investor (2007).

 

Valery Huot, Managing partner of CDC Innovation, and Philippe Granger, partner at Auriga Partners, have joined Stantum’s board of directors, alongside Nicolas Rose, partner at XAnge Private Equity.

 

According to Stantum CEO Etienne Paillard, the new funding will be used to develop a worldwide sales and marketing organization in the U.S., Europe and Asia; increase R&D capacity for next-generation sensing technologies and new products; and establish and increase mass manufacturing capabilities through partners.

 

Stantum, originally called JazzMutant, was founded in 2002 with an aim to develop new human-machine interface standards for the creative industry. In 2003, JazzMutant produced the world’s first multi-touch screen that could track an unlimited number of fingers at once. In 2005, JazzMutant launched the first multi-touch product, the first such on the market. Facing an ever-growing demand from various OEMs, the company began working in 2006 to make its patented multi-touch technology available to third-party integrators. In 2007, after a round of financing led by XAnge Private Equity, JazzMutant became Stantum and officially launched its OEM activity.

 

“Stantum has assembled an unparalleled engineering and top management team with a proven track record of bringing leading products to market,” said Huot. “The company has already demonstrated cutting edge multi-touch solutions that are attracting strong partner and customer interest for mobile phones, navigation devices, and other consumer electronics equipment.”

 

“We are very excited to be supporting Stantum and are impressed by the progress the company has made to date. Stantum’s focused strategy

 

and unique multi-touch technologies provide a very strong foundation for future success,” added Granger.

 

Vadis Ventures, a corporate finance boutique focused on the high-tech sector, advised Stantum through this round of financing.

 

About Stantum Technologies

 

Stantum Technologies (www.stantum.com) has been the pioneering company in multi-touch display technology since 2002, and in 2005 was the first company to market commercial products using a truly reliable multi-touch user interface. Today, Stantum’s breakthrough technology portfolio is available under license for products covering every aspect of multi-touch interactions: touch panels, controllers, intellectual property cores, and software framework. Stantum is headquartered in Bordeaux, France.

 

About CDC Innovation

 

Founded in 1996, CDC Innovation (www.cdcinnovation.com) is an international venture capital firm with its world headquarters in Paris and offices in the Silicon Valley and Switzerland. With more than $575 million currently under management, its focus is on venture investments, at both the early and late stage, in two sectors: information technologies and life sciences. Its aim is to create value by providing talented entrepreneurs with the resources, experience and network necessary to turn world-class technologies into great businesses.

 

About Auriga Partners

 

Auriga Partners (www.aurigapartners.com) is an independent venture capital firm. Based in Paris, it invests in information technologies and life sciences, in innovative high-potential ventures, in seed or early development stages, in Europe, North America and Israel.

 

Auriga

 

Partners manages three funds for a total of more than $420 million.

 

Along with investing the necessary capital, Auriga Partners also brings its savoir-faire in developing and solidifying executive teams, organizing companies, broadening their networks, and forming strategic and corporate partnerships.

 

About XAnge Private Equity

 

Backed by leading European companies and financial institutions, XAnge (www.xange.fr) is a unique private equity firm with EUR 350 million in assets under management. XAnge was first launched in 2003 through the creation of XAnge Capital, a unique European venture capital firm that focuses on connectivity businesses and is sponsored by Groupe La Poste. XAnge Private Equity — an investment firm created by La Banque Postale — ABN AMRO and management, has since developed a broader range of competencies from venture capital to growth/transfer capital. As an active minority shareholder, XAnge supports growth companies. XAnge has deliberately positioned itself as a link between large corporations and small and medium-sized businesses, to which it offers its expertise and an industrial — as opposed to a merely financial — vision.

 

Last year, XAnge Private Equity established a branch in Munich which received an advisory mandate to manage most of the IT technology portfolio of Deutsche Venture Capital (DVC), Deutsche Bank’s venture capital subsidiary. This new entity enables XAnge to continue its international expansion, and to pinpoint investment opportunities in Germany in the high tech, telecom and clean tech sectors.