Startup working on small Projectors

Funds managed by Holtron Ventures Ltd. and Finnish Industry Investment Ltd. have agreed on a seed investment round in Upstream Engineering, a developer of advanced optical technology enabling data projectors the size of a matchbox. The investment will be used to finance the development of optical technology into commercial products. Photon Vacuum, a proprietary technology developed by Upstream Engineering, enables lighting engines that maximize the light power extracted from a low-power light source such as a LEDs. For developers of data projectors and microscopes among a number of others, Photon Vacuum technology enables designs that are significantly smaller in size and consume a fraction of the power compared with lighting engines currently in the market. ”The investment will accelerate the further development of our proprietary Photon Vacuum technology. With the increased resource base, we expect to be ready for a commercial launch of the first version of Photon Vacuum in spring 2005”, said Mikko Alasaarela, CEO, Upstream. “Upstream has succeeded in developing a unique optical technology that enables extremely small lighting engines for projectors. There are numerous interesting opportunities in consumer, business and specialty applications, and we’ll be looking at global markets right from launch”, says Juha Ruohonen, Managing Partner, Holtron Ventures. In conjunction with the seed investment, Mr. Pekka Roine, former President of DEC Finland and Chairman of Solid Information Technology, was appointed Chairman of the Upstream Engineering Board of Directors. Mr. Roine, a resident of Switzerland, brings the company a wealth of experience in commercialization of new technologies. Upstream Engineering, a technology company based in Oulu, Finland, is developing a proprietary ‘Photon Vacuum’ technology for new LED-based projection. The ‘Photon Vacuum’ model, as a disruptive innovation, will be applicable in a vast multitude of new, state-of-the-art applications and solutions. Upstream is currently in the proof-of-concept phase of its (patents pending) technology, innovated in 2003. Holtron Ventures is a Private Venture Capital company investing in seed-phase ICT companies. Previously Holtron funds have invested in e.g. MySQL AB, Oplayo Oy, BlueGiga Oy and Canter Oy. Finnish Industry Investment is a private investor owned by Finnish government. Industry Investment promotes funding of growth companies by investing in technology funds and making direct investments.