RAPT secures €4m equity investment

RAPT Touch, an Irish provider of "multi-touch technology", has secured € 4 million of new equity funding in an investment round led by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, which is managed by NCB Ventures.

The € 4 million investment will allow the company to undertake further research and development, accelerate its expansion and enable it to take on new servicing contracts with global electronic original equipment manufacturers.

Established in 2004 by Owen Drumm and Gerry Giblin and headquartered in Dublin, RAPT Touch has offices in Silicon Valley, Switzerland and Taiwan. It has developed a patent-protected technology delivering disruptive savings for flush finish multi-touch screens of all sizes and surfaces, and offers the first multi-touch alternative for OEM's to projected capacitive systems.

The touch-screen sector is valued at $14 billion worldwide and estimates suggest that in 2012 , 500 million products and three billion inches of multi-touch enabled screens were sold. Market analysts believe that by 2017 the sector will be worth $24 billion.

RAPT’s key features include Windows 8-enabled technology for multiple screen surfaces and sizes, stylus and glove input and increased LCD clarity. RAPT’s initial product targets are personal computers, media tablets and interactive displays.

Gerry Giblin, RAPT group chief executive, said “material costs and technological limitations have to date limited touch screen technology deployment into multi-touch screen sizes larger than 11 inches. Our patented multi-touch solution is experiencing very strong demand from OEMs and the overwhelming demand for multi-touch points to the future of user interfaces”.