3M New Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous US-listed industrial group, has invested in Mersive, a provider of visual computing software.
As part of the equity investment, which a regulatory filing last month said was worth $2.8m, 3M has formed a strategic development to bring a new class of displays to market that foster visual collaboration.
Stefan Gabriel, president of 3M New Ventures, said: “Combining Mersive software with 3M’s projection and display technology, will produce affordable, easy-to-install, high quality display systems that foster interaction, facilitate decision making and cultivate creativity.
“As part of this agreement, 3M and Mersive will closely collaborate to develop projection and display systems that achieve higher levels of performance and ease of use than products currently on the market.”
In February, Razor’s Edge Ventures, a venture firm set up by a management including top executives at US-based defence contractor Blackbird Technologies, and the US intelligence service’s quasi-corporate venturing unit, In-Q-Tel, both invested in Mersive as part of strategic development.
Mersive was founded in 2004. It previously raised $4.6m in its series B round in 2009 and an A round of undisclosed size in July 2006.
Venture capital firm Hopewell Ventures was the lead investor in the B round with a $4m commitment and was joined by peers Adena Ventures and Woodland Venture Management, non-profit corporation Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation and the Bluegrass Angels Venture Fund, a local seed funding organisation.
Christopher Jaynes and Stephen Webb set up Mersive 2006 as an offshoot of academic research financed by DARPA, DHS, and NSF, which Jaynes started in 2000.