M Ventures, the strategic corporate venture capital fund of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and CLEARink Displays announced today that M Ventures has made an investment in CLEARink’s C Round.

CLEARink started its C Round of investment mid 2017 with a lead investment and co-investments by China based strategic investors involved in the electronic display industry. Following this, additional investments were received from strategic investors in the U.S. and Taiwan. This latest investment from M Ventures marks the end of the C Round. The C Round, which was oversubscribed, paves the way for the company to focus on bringing its first products to market.

CLEARink has developed ePaper 2.0, the world’s first reflective display that will be color and video/internet capable. The company targets the education and wearable markets, where traditional display technologies aren’t a fit. The company has been seeing great traction in the education market, as concerns are growing about the lack of outdoor readability with traditional displays, forcing children to be educated in daylight deprived classrooms, and the detrimental impact of long-term exposure to backlights.

CLEARink closed its 1st round in 2012 and a 2nd round in 2015. This 3rd round of financing was specifically targeted at strategic investors. The proceeds from this round are intended to take the company through the trial-manufacturing phase and to mass production. CLEARink is currently running manufacturing trials in Shenzhen, China.

“We are delighted that M Ventures has decided to join our group of distinguished investors. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany had already been investing in our joint development since 2012 with a further development agreement signed in 2017[1], but the fact that they now took an equity stake in our company through their venture fund is a further endorsement of our success potential” said Frank Christiaens, CEO & Chairman, CLEARink Displays.

Owen Lozman, Vice President, M Ventures, added, “We have found both the CLEARink team and the technology to be exceptional. Now that the technology nears maturity and first end products are expected to come to market in 2019, we are excited to announce this investment as part of our growing Performance Materials portfolio and to ensure that we continue to contribute to the success of this disruptive display technology.”