Convergent Ventures, Precision Dynamics Corp. to form, fund new radio frequency identification company to manufacture new products
Los Angeles February 18, 2004 Convergent Ventures, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, and Precision Dynamics Corp., a manufacturer of healthcare and identification management products worldwide, announced today that they have signed an agreement to form a new company called ORFID Corp.
ORFID is based on technology and intellectual property derived from Precision Dynamics' internal product development efforts in the field of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and from fundamental advancements and inventions in materials science and polymer electronics emerging from the laboratory of Dr. Yang Yang, the scientific founder of ORFID and Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Convergent Ventures and Precision Dynamics said they would contribute initial management as well as some members of ORFID's Board of Directors and Science and Engineering Advisory Board (SEAB). Convergent and Precision Dynamics will also provide seed funding for ORFID.
Dr. Yang will serve as a member of ORFID's Board of Directors and chairman of the company's SEAB (Science and Engineering Advisory Board). He will continue as a full-time faculty member at UCLA. Robert Foster, director of the Center for Management in the Information Economy at UCLA's Anderson School of Business will also join ORFID's Board of Directors.
Dr. Yang, who has served as a consultant to Precision Dynamics, has invented new methods for producing RFID devices on flexible substrates, using conductive polymers and inkjet printing technology. Precision Dynamics and Dr. Yang (via UCLA) are transferring intellectual property to ORFID that will form the foundation for ORFID's entry into the burgeoning new field of organic semiconductors and flexible electronics.
Dr. Yang said ORFID's technology will enable manufacturing of new products such as electronic "smart labels," flexible displays, intelligent packaging, electronic paper, disposable electronics, electronic textiles, biosensors, and medical devices.
He said, "I look forward to guiding the scientific and technical vision of ORFID and to seeing inventions made at UCLA move toward commercialization, and, ultimately, into the hands of manufacturers and even consumers. The possibilities of organic electronics are limited only by the imagination."
"We are excited to participate in the founding of ORFID Corp. along with Precision Dynamics and Dr. Yang," said Dr. Jonathan Lasch, a managing director at Convergent, who will serve as ORFID's founding Chairman and CEO. "ORFID will have an outstanding team that combines all the right technical expertise, operating resources and entrepreneurial experience to build a successful new company." Dr. Lasch added, "We are happy to locate ORFID in Los Angeles, near UCLA."
Dr. Walter Mosher, Jr., co-founder and chairman of the Board of Precision Dynamics, said, "The formation of ORFID Corp. is an important step in Precision Dynamics' evolution from a manufacturer and distributor of hospital and patron identification management products to a developer and marketer of next-generation healthcare and identification management products incorporating advanced technologies, such as RFID."
Precision Dynamics said it is the developer of the Smart Band identification wristband system. Smart Band integrates an RFID chip and antenna in a wearable plastic band that can be read by a hand-held reading device or stationery reader. The computer chip on the Smart Band can contain information about the individual wearer that can be used and updated in many applications, including healthcare, patron management and corrections.
