Israeli display technology startup N-Trig Ltd. has raised $28 million in a first round of institutional venture capital from Canaan Partners and Evergreen Venture Partners.
The deal comes on top of $22 million in previous investments from angel investors since the company, which makes electromagnetic touch screen technology, was formed in 2000. N-Trig's chief financial officer, Sharon Barzik-Cohen, said the new funding is expected to be the company's final private round, and is coupled with a $5 million credit facility from Plenus Venture Lending of Israel that will take the company to positive cash flow in 2009.
The new investment was made out of the Israeli offices of Canaan and Evergreen, and includes participation from U.S. representatives of both firms. Barzik-Cohen said N-Trig worked with Ido Stern of CIBC World Markets in New York to identify investors with a strong U.S. presence as the company expands with the opening of U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas.
N-Trig did not disclose a valuation for the new investment, but Barzik-Cohen said it came at an increase to previous rounds, after the company began shipments of its first commercial products to Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc., for inclusion in its Latitude XT Tablet PC products.
Izhar Shay, a venture partner with Canaan Partners in Herzliya, Israel, said the firm believes N-Trig's pen and touch technologies position it as a market leader in the fast-growing touch screen market and that it has already demonstrated traction with major computer brands.
In addition to Dell, N-Trig is working with U.K.-based Motion Computing Inc., and N-Trig CEO Amihai Ben-David said the company had shipped more than 10,000 DuoSense digitizers to OEM and OED customers as of November.
N-Trig's proprietary technology is based on a transparent unit that integrates on top of the liquid crystal display panel and includes logarithms that allow it to differentiate intentional input from the finger and contact with the palm of the hand.
The company believes its technology is faster, more sensitive and accurate, and more power-efficient than traditional touch screen technology.
Continue reading below
