1 company, $1 billion+ of VC investment, 0 products, 0 revenue
thebln.com
thebln.com
They had to produce the Que because no partners believed the technology worked at scale - they wanted to see an actual product created. This in itself was a huge culture shock for a technology company to have to suddenly sweat product details.
And so far the technology hasn't worked in a scalable manner, but this is a matter of time and capital.
eReaders were an interesting choice, when Plastic Logic decided on this the iPad was non-existent and the only eReaders were crappy Sony ones, by the time they managed to launch it the market was far more mature and expectations of what a product had to do to be good had sky rocketed.
You're probably wondering what other products their plastic technology can be used in, it is very diverse in reality - eventually plastic logic will have electronic paper for the same price as regular paper. Imagine if medicine labels updated on the fly with reminders, recommendations and guidelines. Posters on the wall changed over the air rather than needing to be reprinted, etc etc. Futuristic stuff in theory.
It is very easy to criticise a a company for raising so much capital and never launching anything - but what they are doing is ridiculously futuristic - literal hard technology that'll impact every persons life in the long run.
I wonder if the early investors like Hermann Hauser and Amadeus have made any money from this yet.
As I understand it, Plastic Logic started as a technology company, but as their investors poured more and more cash into the business were encouraged to become more of a product company. The desire to move up the value chain seems to be a reasonable ask, but it also appears that it meant that Plastic Logic never built a foundation to their business.
I'm awed by the technology, too. But I highly doubt any of the investors will make their money back.
I would never criticise a company for raising too much money though I would be inclined to query the wisdom of an early stage investor who thought that they would get a return.
Creating a new manufacturing industry is very expensive.
:)))
man, you just don't get how Russian nanotechnology business works. It uses completely different technological process. Let me explain step-by-step:
step 1: i invest into your venture 1B of government money i manage
step 2: you transfer back to my personal Switzerland account (not to my government fund) 500M.
Repeat until there is government money available.
Plastic is more durable and flexible, cheaper (in the long run) and can be produced in non-clean rooms.
Essentially this is silicon chips without the silicon. Electronic circuits printed onto cheaper plastic substrates which offer promise of cheaper electronics with interesting properties such as flexibility. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_electronics
The difficulty is making the technology work, and you're kidding yourself if you think investors in this kind of company look at deals any smaller than the kinds of Plastic Logic bets.