“We’re delighted to continue to attract market-driving investors,” says Jess Lee, CEO at InVisage. “These partners bring solid validation on an increasingly global scale. We are pleased to welcome Oceanwide as part of our broad initiative to address the China market.”
In addition to Oceanwide, InVisage’s latest funding round also includes investments from GGV Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, InterWest Partners, Intel Capital, and RockPort Capital. Ivisage QuantumFilm products are said to be released next year.
In an unrelated news, Invisage publishes a poll of 500 mobile camera users on what bothers them in their cameras. Here are the partial results:
Quote from their site: "InVisage delivers stunning pictures. We offer the world’s most sensitive camera, generating gorgeous photos in any condition."
ReplyDeleteNever seen one, but I am amusing the investors have :)
Lots of jobs constantly posted on their site. Looks like production will commence in the near term.
Invisage quotes from past press releases:
ReplyDeleteMarch 2010: "The first samples of QuantumFilm camera chips will be available in the fourth quarter, and products using them will likely launch next year."
Feb. 2011
"Initially targeting cameraphone applications, InVisage Technologies' QuantumFilm will be sampling by summer, and could be in devices early next year."
Feb. 2013: "Devices incorporating the technology are expected to ship in Q2 2014"
Reliably unreliable statements from Jess and Invisage are the only things you can count on from this company.
It would be very interesting to know what are the arguments that Lee has convinced the Chinese investors that the quantum dots give better performance a monocrystalin silicon material used in a BSI sensor. Personally I was impressed his fund raising performance!
ReplyDeleteInteresting answers to the above questions. I don't see how even with its claimed performance how quantum film will reduce motion blur its just not enough of an improvement. Also isn't global shutter the big advantage to quantum film? Only 9% of users seems to notice the rolling shutter. Would have been great if this had come around in 2011 as promised possibly a bit late now. Personally I think the thinness and ability to do away with cover glass (or at least a heavy IR filter) might prove useful but I worry there is a lifetime issue with the organic film (think 24 hour camera). Does anyone here know of such lifespan issues?
ReplyDeleteFunny to see someone brag about raising the most funds without selling a product. I agree that the fund raising ability of Invisage is most impressive. But, I think Foveon raised more investment capital than this figure. Then again, their product was going into cameras.
ReplyDeleteQuantum dot film still seems quite interesting, but I do think they missed their real window of opportunity. Perhaps with 3D stacking, issues such as CDS can be satisfactorily solved for this material as well as other deposited materials.
Eric, what becomes Prof. Caver Mead after Foveon acquired by Sigma please ?
DeleteThanks !
-yang ni
I have not seen Carver in a long while. But, I don't think he was actively engaged with Foveon on a day to day basis so I doubt the sale had much impact on him.
DeleteCarver had moved on to his next thing - Impinj - long before Foveon was sold to Sigma. Carver was actually only involved with Foveon in the early days when the point of Foveon's existence was to build a 3-chip portrait camera with custom 4k x 4k monochrome CMOS sensors built by National Semi in Maine. Once Foveon shifted to a product development based on the Merrill work, Carver slowly bowed out. I saw him once at Foveon in 2003, then he moved along to other things.
DeleteWhile not quite an image sensor company, I believe Alex Dickinson and WhoVision raised about $80M for their image sensor on glass fingerprint sensor before going belly up.
ReplyDelete