TactoTek, a Finland-based 3D moulded plastic electronics manufacturer, has increased its total funding to more than $20m following a round that featured Faurecia Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of automotive parts maker Faurecia.
The other investors in the round, which closed in December 2016, were not named. The current shareholders of TactoTek, a spinout of public research institute VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, include VTT Ventures, the institute’s investment arm.
Leaguer Group, the private equity firm backed by Research Institute of Tsinghua University, has also backed TactoTek, as have Conor Venture Partners, Finnish state-owned innovation funding agency Tekes and assorted angel investors.
Founded in 2011, TactoTek produces thin, light, injection-moulded structural electronics (IMSE) that are made by inserting printed circuitry and electric components such as light-emitting diodes into plastics that are heated and poured into moulds to form specific shapes.
The company turns customer designs into IMSE prototypes that can be mass produced and then used in automotive interiors, home appliances, wearable technology, medical devices and industrial controls. TactoTek also licenses its technology to third parties.
TactoTek received a €2.5m ($2.6m) grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program in June 2016, four years after the company secured €1.5m in a seed round co-led by VTT Ventures and Conor Venture Partners.
Eric de La Gironnière, president of Faurecia Ventures, said: “We are very pleased to partner with TactoTek.
“Their innovative process perfectly fits in our “smart life on board” strategy to integrate breakthrough HMI [human-machine interface] technology solutions, which will play a key role in the cockpit of the future and will create a new on-board connectivity experience.”