Jena-based siOP­TICA GmbH has closed a €4M growth financ­ing deal with bm|t and Capital‑E II ARKIV (Capital‑E), Antwerp. With the fresh cap­i­tal, siOP­TICA will extend the prod­uct range of its switch­able pri­vacy fil­ters, expand the IP port­fo­lio, adapt exist­ing solu­tions to new cus­tomer needs and fur­ther develop inno­v­a­tive pri­vacy tech­nol­ogy gen­er­a­tions, while at the same time expand­ing its global dis­tri­b­u­tion net­work and thus posi­tion­ing itself even more strongly in the market.

siOP­TICA spe­cialises in solu­tions with switch­able pri­vacy fil­ters for screens. Core mar­kets are auto­mo­tive, ATMs and pay­ment ter­mi­nals as well as mobile devices, espe­cially lap­tops. The built-in fil­ters make PIN entry at ATMs and other pay­ment ter­mi­nals safer for customers.
In cars, the infor­ma­tion dis­play can now also show enter­tain­ment con­tent to the pas­sen­ger while dri­ving, which the dri­ver is not allowed to see due to legal reg­u­la­tions against dis­trac­tion at the wheel. Nav­i­ga­tion data or other, non-dis­tract­ing con­tent, on the other hand, will be vis­i­ble to the dri­ver at all times with siOP­TICA tech­nol­ogy. From 2022, accord­ing to indus­try stud­ies, on aver­age every new vehi­cle will be equipped with 2 displays.
Screen pri­vacy is also play­ing an increas­ing role in other mar­kets. Employ­ees of many com­pa­nies are only allowed to use their mobile devices out­side the com­pany with pri­vacy films. These films, which are attached to the out­side of the dis­play, have the dis­ad­van­tage of dark­en­ing the screens and increas­ing power con­sump­tion by com­pen­sat­ing for bright­ness. Often, the films are also per­ma­nently attached, so that screen con­tents can­not be shared visu­ally with other users at all. With the help of siOP­TICA tech­nol­ogy, this is a thing of the past: Inte­grated visual pro­tec­tion at the touch of a but­ton allows safe and flex­i­ble work­ing any­time and anywhere.
bm|t (beteili­gungs­man­age­ment thürin­gen gmbh), which among other things man­ages the Pri­vate Equity Thürin­gen II fund and the Growth Par­tic­i­pa­tion Fund of the Thuringian Par­tic­i­pa­tion Cap­i­tal Foun­da­tion invested in siOP­TICA, is now the company’s largest shareholder.
“With Capital‑E (Capital‑E), we have been able to gain a new investor who not only sup­ports us finan­cially, but also brings with him a wealth of expe­ri­ence in the areas of entre­pre­neur­ship and tech­nol­ogy”: empha­sises Dr. Markus Klipp­stein, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor and co-founder of siOP­TICA GmbH.
“Capital‑E invests in inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies in the fields of micro/­nano-elec­tron­ics and new mate­ri­als. The team, the tech­nol­ogy, the very strong IP port­fo­lio as well as the cus­tomer net­work of siOP­TICA con­vinced us. We see sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties,” explains Lou Her­mans of Capital‑E. “We look for­ward to actively sup­port­ing siOPTICA’s highly expe­ri­enced man­age­ment team in its growth over the com­ing years.”
“It is a great plea­sure for us to see how siOP­TICA is con­tin­u­ously devel­op­ing. The new fund­ing gives the com­pany a solid foun­da­tion for fur­ther growth,” says Cor­nelia Böse from bm|t.

About siOPTICA:

siOP­TICA GmbH was founded in Jena in 2013 with the aim of estab­lish­ing inno­v­a­tive spe­cial solu­tions on the mar­ket, pri­mar­ily in the field of optics. The com­pany offers tech­nolo­gies in the field of pri­vacy fil­ters that do not exhibit the severe light loss of con­ven­tional pri­vacy fil­ters and, more­over, allow mul­ti­ple oper­at­ing modes. The solu­tions from siOP­TICA offer strong cus­tomer ben­e­fits in areas such as vehi­cle con­struc­tion, ATMs, pay­ment ter­mi­nals and also in the area of mobile con­sumer devices.
siOP­TICA is a mem­ber of the Ger­man Flat Panel Dis­play Forum (DFF) and the Pho­ton­ics Net­work Thuringia “Optonet e.V.”. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion about siOP­TICA is avail­able at http://www.sioptica.com.

Press contact:

M.A. Manuela Fischer
Direc­tor Busi­ness Development
mf@sioptica.com
Phone: +49 3641 6345 901

About bm|t

bm|t beteili­gungs­man­age­ment thürin­gen GmbH, based in Erfurt, is a sub­sidiary of the Thüringer Auf­baubank and the first address for invest­ments in Thuringia. bm|t cur­rently man­ages eight funds with a total invested vol­ume of around €320 mil­lion, which invest in inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies in almost all sec­tors and in all phases of com­pany devel­op­ment — both in the start-up and growth phases or in com­pany suc­ces­sion situations.
Fur­ther infor­ma­tion about bm|t is avail­able at http://www.bm‑t.com .

Contact:

Cor­nelia Böse
Invest­ment Manager
Phone: +49 361 74 47 606

About Capital‑E

Capital‑E is one of the few ven­ture cap­i­tal funds in Europe focus­ing on early-stage invest­ments in micro/­nano-elec­tron­ics and new mate­ri­als. Typ­i­cally, the fund enters com­pa­nies in the pro­to­type phase or with a turnover of 1 M€ or more. Capital‑E invests mainly in com­pa­nies in West­ern Europe. Capital‑E’s team plays an active role from the time of the ini­tial invest­ment until divest­ment, as part­ners and usu­ally as part of the board.
More infor­ma­tion about Capital‑E is avail­able at http://www.capital‑e.com

Contact:

Dr Lou Hermans
Invest­ment Manager
lou.hermans@capital‑e.com
Tel.: +32 3 303 37 31