IMPRINT ENERGY SECURES $6M SERIES A FINANCING LED BY PHOENIX VENTURE PARTNERS

Funding will accelerate development of the company’s ZincPoly™ batteries for the Wearable Electronics and Internet of Things markets.

June 16, 2014

ALAMEDA, CA, June 16, 2014:  Imprint Energy, Inc., a leader in the development of thin, flexible, rechargeable batteries has secured $6M in Series A funding to advance its technology and product development.  Phoenix Venture Partners (PVP), a venture capital firm with extensive domain expertise in advanced materials entrepreneurship, led the investment and was joined by Flextronics Lab IX and AME Cloud Ventures.  Proceeds will be used to accelerate development of Imprint Energy’s proprietary ZincPoly™ chemistry and secure initial product design wins in the Wearable Electronics and Internet of Things markets.

“Imprint Energy is pleased to welcome PVP to the growing Imprint Energy team. PVP’s successful track record of providing development and strategic assistance to materials-oriented start-ups, as well as its broad industrial end-user/partner network, make PVP a perfect fit for accelerating our efforts,” said Dr. Devin MacKenzie, Imprint Energy CEO.

“PVP sees Imprint Energy’s highly differentiated printable battery technology as a key enabling component to accelerating the growth and emergence of wearable electronics and the Internet of Things.  We are delighted to join the Imprint Energy team and welcome the company to the PVP portfolio,” said Dr. John Chen of Phoenix Venture Partners, who along with fellow partner Dr. Nobi Kambe, will both join the Imprint Energy’s Board of Directors.

Imprint Energy is poised to disrupt the battery market for small portable electronics with its proprietary ZincPoly™ battery technology.  The market today exceeds $1B and is expected to grow substantially with the emergence of new consumer, medical, and industrial devices in Wearable Electronics and the Internet of Things. The company’s innovations in rechargeable Zinc battery chemistry have enabled thin, flexible, solid-state, high energy density cells with performance and features beyond what is commercially available with conventional batteries.  Imprint Energy’sZincPoly™ batteries are thinner, more flexible, more customizable, lower cost to produce and safer, and they will become a platform component for new product innovation.

“We are very excited to announce Flextronics’ investment in Imprint Energy to help bring more flexible printable power solutions to the market,” said Lior Susan, vice president and head of Flextronics Lab IX. “We believe Imprint Energy is an excellent contributor enabling and advancing innovation for the wearables industry and we are happy to provide support and partner with them.”

Imprint Energy Co-founder and President, Brooks Kincaid, added “Flextronics provides us with an attractive channel to potential customers and brings a wealth of experience in design, manufacturing and logistics that will help us scale.”

 

About Imprint Energy

Imprint Energy, Inc. is a battery technology company pioneering ultrathin, flexible, rechargeable batteries for wearable electronics and the Internet of Things markets.  The company’s proprietary ZincPoly™ chemistry offers significant performance, safety, and processing advantages over conventional rechargeable battery chemistries. Imprint Energy’s ZincPoly™ batteries provide product developers unprecedented freedom in device design, enhancing the capabilities and improving the aesthetics. The company is backed by venture capital, corporate, and government investors and development partners. The company was founded in 2010 building on original research conducted at UC Berkeley and is based in Alameda, California.  For additional information, please visit www.imprintenergy.com and @imprintenergy on Twitter.

 

About Phoenix Venture Partners

Phoenix Venture Partners (PVP) is a leading venture capital firm that invests in and partners with entrepreneurs to commercialize breakthrough materials science innovations. PVP’s team has a track record of founding, building and investing in successful materials science start-ups. The firm’s investment strategy is flexible and predicated on assisting entrepreneurs with customer and supply chain partnerships, business development, as well as strategic and operational support. PVP collaborates with a select set of forward-looking global corporations on business development and innovation interests.  PVP is based in Silicon Valley with satellite offices in Singapore and Cambridge, MA.  For more information, please visit www.phoenix-vp.com.

 

About Flextronics

Flextronics is a leading end-to-end supply chain solutions company that delivers design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics services to a range of industries and end-markets, including data networking, telecom, enterprise computing and storage, industrial, capital equipment, appliances, automation, medical, automotive, aerospace and defense, energy, mobile, computing and other electronic product categories. Flextronics is an industry leader with $26 billion in sales, generated from helping its customers design, build, ship, and service their products through an unparalleled network of facilities in more than 30 countries and across four continents. Flextronics’ service offerings and vertically integrated component technologies optimize customer supply chains by lowering costs, increasing flexibility, and reducing time-to-market. For more information, visit www.flextronics.com or follow us on Twitter @flextronics. For more information on Lab IX, visit www.labix.io.

 

About AME Cloud Ventures

AME Cloud Ventures is the venture fund led by Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!.  For more information visit www.amecloudventures.com.