Bodle screens $8.5m series A

Bodle Technologies, a UK-based display technology developer spun out from University of Oxford, raised £6m ($8.5m) in a series A round today from investors including university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI).

The round was led by spinout-focused investment firm Parkwalk Advisors and also included Woodford Patient Capital Trust and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund (OTIF), advised by Oxford Investment Consultants.

Bodle Technologies is developing a solid-state reflective display (SRD) that consumes no energy when a static image is being shown. The SRD is paper-thin but boasts vivid colours and has a refresh rate high enough to play videos, while causing less eye-strain than current displays.

The technology has applications in a wide range of products, such as wearables, e-readers and internet of things displays. Long-term, Bodle is also looking into turning items such as packaging and posters into dynamic displays.

Bodle is exploiting research by Prof Harish Bhaskaran and postdoctoral researcher Peiman Hosseini at University of Oxford’s Department of Materials. The series A round will enable the spinout to scale its business and advance through prototyping.

Parkwalk Advisors previously supplied an undisclosed sum in March 2017 through the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund, following an earlier commitment of undisclosed size through its University of Oxford Isis Fund II in 2015 alongside OSI and OTIF.

Mike Clary, chief executive of Bodle Technologies, said: “Electronic displays continue to be outnumbered by the vast number of static, non-digital displays around us – in the form of permanently printed text and graphics.

“Our technology offers the chance to seamlessly integrate displays onto the surfaces and objects around us. It enables a natural display of vivid colours, which is unconstrained by hard-wired mains power or excessive battery drain, which even acts in no-energy mode when required.”