Flexible Electronics Firms Rakes in $20 Million in Funding

MC10 (Cambridge, MA) has announced that it has obtained $19.8 million in new equity funding for its bendable electronics technology. Earlier in December, the company announced that it had obtained $10 million in Series C financing, which was provided by Medtronic, several venture investors, and an unnamed consumer health company. Stephen Oesterle, MD, Medtronic's senior vice president of medicine and technology will collaborate with the company as a board observer.So far, the company has raised a total of $60.5 million in funding. The firm now has one product on the market: a mesh-based device that fits under a helmet to detect impact to the head in games like hockey. The product is the result of collaboration between MC10 and Reebok's Advanced Concepts group. Data gathered by such athlete-worn technology could be used to not just detect injury but also optimize performance. MC10's technology can be used to gauge temperature, hydration levels, brain activity, heart rate, and muscle function. Data gathered by the device can then be delivered wirelessly to a nearby device, like a smartphone. The company says its technology can be used to create "an entirely new class of intelligent medical devices." Early healthcare-related applications of the technology include monitoring of the temperature of infants, remote patient monitoring, and interventional cardiology. For the latter application, the technology could be embedded in balloon catheters to give them the ability to monitor temperature, blood flow, and electrophysiological data. In addition, it be used in conjunction with radio-frequency electrodes to provide localized tissue ablation.