High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in Start-up for Special Optics

High-Tech Gründerfonds invests a Start-up Company for Special Optics. The investment shall funds the setup of siOPTICA GmbH. siOPTICA offers innovative secretive solutions first and foremost for payment terminals or ATMs.

In a multitude of countries, there is a requirement to screen the PIN input during payment transactions from unauthorized views. siOPTICA has developed a special secretive filter that has reduced the brightness loss –which in the state-of-the-art is tremendous- to a negligible value and apart from that features further innovative properties, such as the possibility to turn-off the secretive effect.

The filter generation developed by siOPTICA can be used beneficially also in other business verticals, such as the areas of logistics/secure access and, more on the midterm, in the consumer area (particularly for the entry of PIN/TAN/Password information on mobile devices). siOPTICA furthermore plans the development of special optics for the automotive sector.

Dr. Guillem Sague, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, explains: „A secretive filter which can be turned on and off purely by software is not available in the market because even established Giant manufacturers did fail so far on this challenge. We like to invest in unique technologies which were considered not to be usable on an industrial scale so far. If we succeed to demonstrate the contrary, we achieve a big success.“

Dr. Markus Klippstein, CEO of siOPTICA GmbH, forecasts: „The installation volume of 150,000 to 200,000 new ATMs per year shows the potential of this technology. On top, there will be other types of payment terminals as well as diverse business verticals such as secure access systems and the consumer area. Our goal is to achieve a market share of 10% to 15% within four to five years in the area of payment terminals/ATMs as well as to secure market shares in the single digit percentage in other verticals.” Further fields of application are seen the fields of Data Security, Authentification and the Automotive Sector.

About siOPTICA:
siOPTICA GmbH was founded in 2013 in Jena/Germany with the goal to establish innovative and special solutions in the market, primarily in the field of optics. The company offers technologies in the field of secretive filters that can screen data from unauthorized views, whereas the company’s products do not suffer from the state-of-the-art brightness loss and furthermore they offer different modes of operation. siOPTICA’s solutions offer great advantages in the fields of Banking/Retail/Payment terminals, logistics/secure access, data security as well as consumer electronics.

Contact:
Dr. Markus Klippstein
Moritz-von-Rohr-Str. 1a
D-07745 Jena
Germany
Tel.: +49 (03641) 6345902
mailto: mk@sioptica.com

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301.5 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Schlegelstraße  2
53113 Bonn
Dr. Guillem Sague
phone: +49 (228) 823 001-00
fax: +49 228 823 000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de