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Hyperspectral imaging firm SPECIM wins €3.5M funding

23 Aug 2017

Investment by Bocap intended to double Finnish firm’s sales to €20 million.

Specim – Spectral Imaging Ltd. – has secured new investment of €3.5 million from Bocap SME Achievers Fund II Ky, with the aim of doubling its current €10 million revenue by 2020.

Specim is a pioneer in hyperspectral imaging technology and developing related products. Its cameras are widely used in industrial, environmental and security applications, such as in drill core scanning and for producing mineral maps, in agriculture to screen the crops for disease, and they are key components in the latest waste-sorting robotics. Specim’s products also help to authenticate artworks, detect explosives, and in forensic investigation.

Since 2015, Specim has invested about €6M in developing a new generation of cameras and it will complete the rollout of a new product family by the end of 2017. The cameras are said to offer hyperspectral imaging technology for industrial OEM-clients. Specim plans to invest the latest funding in further strengthening its position in the global markets.

“I am proud to say that Specim will be investing nearly as much in sales and marketing as in R&D. With this latest move we will take full commercial advantage of our superior knowledge, the entire R&D investment, and the new camera family,” said Specim’s Chairman Risto Kalske, who has already brought several high-tech companies into rapid growth.

During Specim’s 22 years of existence, its clientele and customer solutions have all seen significant change besides the rapid development of the technology. The originally large items of research equipment, typically weighing tens of kilos and offering challenging usability, have been transformed into more compact, portable instruments now weighing less than one kilo and with high-specifcation data-processing capabilities.

Transformation of hyperspectral

Timo Hyvärinen, one of the founders, commented, “I have every reason to believe that with miniaturization, hyperspectral imaging will become a part of people’s everyday lives. Usability will undergo a revolution, and soon mobile equipment can easily be brought to the measurement sites for real-time use. Collecting samples, transporting them to the lab for analysis, and experiencing delays in getting the results will become history.”

Bocap’s partner, Vilma Torstila,commented that she is very excited about this opportunity. “Specim combines superior technological knowledge with the ability to commercialize it to meet sophisticated and ever-demanding customer needs. We are happy to enhance Specim’s commercial success, and accelerate future growth via this investment.”

SPECIM has so far delivered more than 5,000 HS systems worldwide and the company claims that its core technology team “has the world’s longest continuous track record in hyperspectral imaging”. The company is headquartered in Oulu, Finland and currently employs 60 professionals.

Bocap is an independent private equity company founded in 2012 and dedicated to established, entrepreneur-led, high growth SMEs. It is a forerunner in Finland for its concept and role as an active minority investor, by which Bocap champions its portfolio companies into successful growth. Bocap is funded by mainly Nordic institutional investors such as life and pension insurance companies, foundations, pension funds and selected private investors.

TRIOPTICS GmbHOmicron-Laserage Laserprodukte GmbHLaCroix Precision OpticsFirst Light ImagingUniverse Kogaku America Inc.ABTechCHROMA TECHNOLOGY CORP.
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