VividQ raises additional funds of £2.4 million

RNS Number : 9571H

Pires Investments PLC

30 March 2020

 

Pires Investments plc

("Pires" or the "Company")

VividQ raises additional funds of £2.4 million

Pires is pleased to provide an update on its investment in Sure Valley Ventures ("SVV") in relation to VividQ Limited ("VividQ"), a company within the SVV portfolio.

Following on from SVV's initial £1 million investment in VividQ, the company announced on 16 December 2019 that it had secured additional funding of £2.4 million from two new investors, FluxUnit - OSRAM Ventures ("FluxUnit") and University of Tokyo Edge Capital ("UTEC"), making a total of £3.4 million for this funding round.

Fluxunit is the independent venture capital arm of OSRAM, a global photonics company. UTEC is a seed/early-stage technology-focused venture capital firm associated with academic institutions such as The University of Tokyo.  These two new strategic investors are well connected in the German and Japanese automotive markets, respectively.

VividQ ( www.vivid-q.com ) is a software company with leading expertise in 3D holography. VividQ's software is able to bring real-time computer generated holography to everyday applications which is expected to drive the mass adoption of holographic displays in consumer electronics. Currently, holographic displays powered by VividQ's software are being implemented by original equipment manufacturers in the US, China, and Japan, in applications ranging from augmented reality smartglasses to automotive head-up displays.  With this funding, VividQ should be well positioned to progress its development of the next generation automotive display market.

These additional funds should enable VividQ to accelerate the adoption of its software in the next generation of consumer electronics, and to scale up the number of integration projects with chipmakers and micro-display manufacturers. The company expects the first holographic devices powered by VividQ to be released in 2020.

Pires has a circa 13% interest in SVV.  SVV is a venture capital fund focused on investing in the software technology sector with a specific focus on augmented and virtual reality ("AR/VR"), artificial intelligence ("AI") and the internet of things ("IoT").

Chairman, Peter Redmond said;

"This recent fund raising demonstrates the quality of the companies that Pires has exposure to through its investment in SVV, namely their ability to raise funds in difficult market conditions and from such high quality and knowledgeable investors."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

Enquiries:

Pires Investments plc Peter Redmond, Chairman Nicholas Lee, Director	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser Cairn Financial Advisers LLP Liam Murray Ludovico Lazzaretti	Tel: [phone]
Broker Peterhouse Capital Limited Duncan Vasey/Lucy Williams	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]

Caution regarding forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.

 

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