Will Ebooks finally take off? E Ink hopes so
E Ink, the company that supplies “paper like” electronic display technology for the new Sony Reader and other Ebooks, is benefiting from recent attention, including reports that Amazon will use it for its rumored upcoming Ebook
The Cambridge, Mass. company has just raised $16 million in a second round of funding, having already raised a significant $150 million. The decade-old company is still not profitable, perhaps because the concept of an Ebook has had limited success so far. Early companies were NuvoMedia and SoftBook, bought by Gemstar in 2000. It’s still not clear how much demand there will be for the updated Sony Reader, released Oct 2.
In June, VentureBeat’s Dan Kaplan did a good summary of the cool technology emerging in the flexible chip/display area, some of it quite hyped.
FA Technology Ventures and other undisclosed previous investors participated in the latest round. Other existing backers include Air Products and Chemicals, Eastward Capital, Intel Capital, Motorola Corp., Philips Venture Capital Fund and Toppan Printing.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
