Touch-screen tech company F-Origin grabs $5M in venture capital - Triangle Business Journal:

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Led by former Bloodhound Software chief Joe the company, known as F-Origin, makes the sort of touch-screenj tech that fuels products including self-checkouyt kiosks at supermarkets, personal GPS the Nintendo DS and the The company's series B round brings its total venture haul to aboutf $8.5 million. Past rounds yieldesd cash for researchand development, but the fres infusion means that the first products with F-Origin technology shoulxd hit the streets in the third quarter. "We are off to the Carsanaro says.
F-Origin is essentially a technologytransfer company, contractinbg with a pair of Asian manufacturerd that will serve as the "master licensors" for the F-Origimn technology. F-Origin will get per-unit royalties on devices made with its The first products to usethe company's technology will be "point-of-service modules" such as kiosks and Carsanaro says. By the end of the CEO says, the company hopeas to have its technology in persona GPS devices andsmart phones. The produc launches are the first stepin F-Origin's ambitiouws business plan, which calls for $100 million in revenue by 2012.
"Basedf on our current revenue visibility, thinge look good for this year," Carsanario says. "... Next year looks quite attainable. The trico will be looking at 2010and beyond." The market for touch-screenn technology is a fragmented one. But all thosre companies are competing in an increasingly large Research firm iSuppli estimates that the worldwid marketfor touch-screen modules will be $3.3 billiobn this year and $6.4 billion by 2013. "There's a huge markeg potential, but there are a lot of different says Haru Kato ofKeynote Ventures, one of the investors in F-Origin'sd Series B round.
"The fact is that they have different approaches to this toucnscreen thing. Different people have a different perspective in terms of the competitive advantagesx and disadvantages andso on." F-Origin investor since the company'zs angel round. Keynote co-led the series B along with the investment armof Taiwan-based Primew View International, an F-Origin manufacturing partner. As Carsanaro tells it, his company'e offering is superior to many products now onthe It's low-cost, durable and easier to incorporate into product It also consumes less power than othetr touch-screen technologies, he says. F-Origin also has name recognition.
Carsanaro'ws company is the successor to a Finnisjh companynamed MyOrigo, which is stillp somewhat famous among technology types for a 2003 cell phon called MyDevice. That phone, though clunkuy by today's standards, was notable for featurinhg many of the same technologies now seenon Apple'sa iPhone, including a touch screen panel and a feature that allowe users to switch between landscapew and portrait views. But MyOrigo never found a U.S. partner for the device and ran outof Carsanaro, along with businesd partners, bought the company's technology in 2005 and moved the headquarters to the Triangle.
What's now key for F-Origimn is its ability to turn its technologyg and its legacy into relationshipswith manufacturers, says Bill a principal analyst with research firm Its current deals appear to be a good "There are other companiesz that offer similar tech," he says, "ande often, what really makes the difference betweejn someone who has a good story to tell their grandkidx and someone who has something to show for it is theirf relationship with the manufacturers.
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