ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — NewHaptics, an innovative tactile display technology company, announced it has raised growth capital from the Accelerate Blue Fund. This represents the Company’s first round of venture funding, and is a meaningful milestone towards commercializing an affordable refreshable braille and tactile graphics display.
“We are excited to partner with Accelerate Blue in order to further our development efforts,” said NewHaptics co-founder Alex Russomanno. “This investment complements the funding we have raised from government grants, and enables us to continue improving the capabilities and performance of our product and prepare for its commercial launch.”
“ABF was created to support companies like NewHaptics,” said Don Manfredi, Associate Director of Ventures at U-M Innovation Partnerships. “We provide patient, early stage growth capital to U-M licensed companies with the potential to positively impact society. NewHaptics’ braille display will significantly change so many lives for the better and we are happy to support their mission with our investment.”
NewHaptics technology is aimed at enabling increased access to braille in digital form and allowing blind people to interact with spatial content through digital formats. It supports the Company’s mission to improve information access for people who are blind and enable them to reach information parity with their sighted counterparts, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
About NewHaptics
NewHaptics was founded with the goal of improving the lives of people who are blind by enabling true digital interaction using the sense of touch. The company has its roots in the affectionately named “Holy Braille Project” that focused on developing novel technology to enable the creation of a large-area tactile display for the blind. Since spinning off from the University of Michigan in 2018, NewHaptics has raised funding from federal and state grants to support commercialization activities.
About Accelerate Blue Fund
The Accelerate Blue Fund (ABF) is an early stage venture fund that exclusively invests in University of Michigan (U-M) licensed startups. The goal of Accelerate Blue is to bridge the funding gap between initial launch and angel/VC funding for startups based on University of Michigan intellectual property (IP).
