Sensing smart investment

Dual Aperture International (DAI), a South Korea-based provider of integrated smart sensors, has raised $5.7m in its series A round from a consortium including strategic investor Value Investment Korea and the government-backed Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist).

EWBM, a company that licences DAI’s technology, joined Value Investment Korea in the round. DAI was formed by combining US-based Dual Aperture and Kaist’s Center for Integrated Smart Sensors (Ciss) run by professor Chong-Min Kyung.

Kyung said: “Korea is the ideal place to develop new imaging technologies because of the presence of leading mobile phone companies such as Samsung and LG that are committed to improving their camera technologies for their smart mobile and wearable products, cutting-edge innovation coming out of Korean research universities, and ties to investors like VIK who are strategically well-positioned with their connections to Ciss and deep knowledge of mobile technologies.”

David Lee, chief executive of DAI and former founder of Silicon Image, whose HDMI technology is currently being used in more than four billion consumer electronic products, said: “Today, social interaction is centred around photo and video capture. Mobile phone companies and social platforms are highlighting their strengths in camera and image technologies as an important differentiator. Dual Aperture’s technology will bring richer and more informative social interaction capabilities to consumers and I hope it will be utilised in more products than HDMI by 2020.”

Cheol Lee, chief executive of Value Investment Korea, said: “We see Dual Aperture’s technology as a game changer and with the engineering resources and world class engineers of CISS, we see an opportunity for Dual Aperture International to disrupt the imaging business in mobile and beyond.”