By Andrew Webb
Of the Journal
TECH BYTES: Albuquerque biometrics firm Lumidigm has received $7 million in Series C venture capital funding to continue marketing its line of fingerprint scanners.
The six-year-old company makes a range of identity verification systems that use multispectral flashes of light to record images of subdermal structures, such as capillaries, which form the foundation for an individual's fingerprint. The technology is designed to eliminate spoofing and unreadable results caused by weather or skin condition.
Janine Kennedy, a company spokeswoman, said the new funding round would be used to expand marketing of its recently released Venus Series fingerprint scanners. The V-Series is a lower-cost, off-the-shelf follow-on to Lumidigm's larger, more specialized J-Series scanner.
They are smaller and made more rugged for outdoor use, and are intended for a wide range of applications, including door access control, employee time and attendance tracking, verifying identity and securing inventory, such as medicines at a hospital.
Participants in the recent funding round included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Epic Ventures (formerly Wasatch), Intel Capital, International Venture Fund, Motorola Ventures, Fort Washington Capital Partners, Solstice Capital and Sun Mountain Capital, which manages a pool of state permanent funds for investment in small companies.
"We see Lumidigm as an emerging market leader offering the next generation of biometric functionality," Sun Mountain managing partner Brian Birk said in a news release.
The new round brings Lumidigm's total venture capital investment to more than $20 million.
FLUID LENS FIRM CAPTURES $2.7M INVESTMENT: Albuquerque-based Holochip, a manufacturer of adaptive variable focus polymer lenses, or APL technology, has received a Series A investment round of $2.7 million from Los Angeles-based ITU Ventures and Japanese technology trading company Itochu Ventures.
Holochip's fluidic lenses allow adjustment of camera focal length without actually changing the location of the lens, similar to the mechanism of the human eye. The company is targeting the mobile phone and digital camera industry.
Under the agreement, Itochu will partner with Holochip for fabrication and distribution of its lenses in Japan.
Holochip was a presenter at the 2007 Technology Ventures Corp. Equity Capital Symposium.
Itochu announced in 2004 a "memorandum of understanding" with the state of New Mexico, under which the Japanese company would get access to research institutions and laboratories based here, for the purpose of setting up companies around locally developed technology.
Itochu has a similar distribution agreement with Santa Fe-based CleanAIR Systems, a developer of advanced pollution control systems for diesel engines and other devices.
STATE: ANGEL TAX CREDIT DRIVING INVESTMENT: According to the New Mexico Economic Development Department's Office of Science and Technology, a tax credit for private, or "angel," investors passed by last year's Legislature has to date resulted in more than $1 million in investment here.
The incentive program allows a taxpayer who files a New Mexico income tax return and who is a qualified investor may take a tax credit of up to $25,000— 25 percent of a qualified investment of not more than $100,000— for an investment made in a New Mexico high-tech firm.
During the program's first six months, qualified angel investments were made in Albuquerque-based Gourmet Pet Supply, a pet food firm; Vibrant Corp., which is developing resonance-based technologies to check the quality of aerospace parts; APJet, a Santa Fe fabric treatment technology developer, and Advent Solar, an Albuquerque photovoltaic cell manufacturer.
SATWEST GETS FAA NOD FOR IN-FLIGHT COMMS SYSTEM: Albuquerque-based SatWest, a systems integrator and reseller of satellite communications systems, has received a Federal Aviation Administration certification to sell global voice and data commun-ications systems for several LearJet aircraft models.
Developed at the behest of a large retailer with a fleet of 20 jets, the system allows voice communications and Internet access worldwide, as well as a Web-based aircraft tracking system.
With the type certification, SatWest can install the system in certain corporate jets without each installation requiring the FAA's blessing, said SatWest chairman and founder Brian Barnett.
"This makes it a lot cheaper for LearJet owners to get our equipment on board and in service," he said.
The system is based on the Iridium satellite phone network. The FAA certification of SatWest covers six popular LearJet models.
Andrew Webb covers technology for the Journal. You can reach him at 823-3819 or awebb@abqjournal.com.
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