A Harmar Township startup led by the former CEO of Bayer Corp. has completed a Series C funding round and landed Matthews International Corp. as an investor. Liquid X Printed Metals Inc. raised $2 million from eight investors, chiefly high-net-worth individuals, confirmed President and CEO Greg Babe.
The company, which spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2010, developed a metallic conductive ink technology that allows the printing of metal traces and films onto a number of applications, including medical devices, consumer electronics and solar panels. Babe took the helm in 2013, a year after he retired from Bayer where he started as the company’s first intern and was CEO for four years.
Having Matthews (Nasdaq:MATW) come aboard as a strategic investor goes beyond capital, Babe said. The North Side-based company’s business segments span memorial, brand solutions and industrial.
“They have a lot of activity in this space and a lot of very specific knowledge so it’s a very welcome new investor,” Babe said. “They view the investment as R&D to leverage their own capabilities and intellectual property.”
Calls to Matthews CFO Joseph Nicola were not returned.
The new funding will be used to increase sales and marketing internationally, in part by “developing prototype devices to get in front of original equipment manufacturers,” Babe said. OEMs could include makers of flexible solar panels or wearable applications for health monitoring, he explained.
Liquid X employs six.
“We do a lot of our work through development partnerships,” Babe explained.
But it is adding two posts immediately, in sales and marketing.
“As time goes on, we may add more technical resources,” he said. “That depends on our success in certain applications and what direction we chose to go.”
Liquid X will continue to develop products and expand its intellectual property, Babe said.
Patty Tascarella, ptascarella@bizjournals.com | Dec 16, 2016
Read the article: Pittsburgh Business Times