Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Caswell out at Zink, which lands $35M fundraise

By Rodney H. Brown

Inkless printing technology company Zink Imaging Inc. has closed a $35 million Series B financing round, led by Genii Capital, while shaking up the top executive positions.

According to a release from Bedford-based Zink, the company now has two new co-CEOs: board chairman Mary Jeffries and president Ira Parker. The release did not state what had happened to previous CEO Wendy Caswell, a Mass High Tech Women to Watch Honoree in 2008. Caswell’s LinkedIn profile still lists her as CEO of Zink, but Parker said in an interview that she had resigned from the company in August.

While the release said that Genii led the $35 million round, it said that the company “is also backed by Mangrove Capital Partners,” but did not explicitly state that it was involved in this round. Parker did say, however that there were a number of investors in the Series B round and that “Mangrove remains one of our largest investors.”

While the release said that Genii led the $35 million round, it said that the company “is also backed by Mangrove Capital Partners,” but did not explicitly state that it was involved in this round.

Both Jeffries and Parker are former board members of Zink, and have rejoined the company with their new positions, according to the release. Jeffries was CEO of Polaroid Corp., and in between Polaroid and Zink, she was a principal at Acuity Strategic Consulting. Prior to Polaroid, Jeffries was general partner and chief operating officer for St. Paul Venture Capital, and COO of Weber Shandwick.

Parker is also a Polaroid veteran. He is the former executive vice president, corporate & business development, and general counsel for AOL Inc. He joined AOL in 2006 from Polaroid Corp., where he served as vice president and general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer.

In a May 2010 interview, Caswell described how Zink was a spinout of Polaroid, launched in 2005. Instead of using ink held in cartridges, Zink’s printing system uses colorless dye crystals embedded into a special photo paper with a protective polymer overcoat. Heat from the printer activates the crystals, releasing the colors that make the images. That technology was put on display in January at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in a new camera from Polaroid, and Parker said, “You will see more consumer products coming out in 2012.”

While Zink itself didn’t have a booth at CES last year, and won’t this year, Polaroid will, “and there are potentially some other partners that will be on the floor,” Parker said.

“We are in a very exciting place right now,” he said. “We have a number of opportunities in both the commercial and consumer space that we are pursuing.”

Editor's note: Former CEO of Zink Imaging is Wendy Caswell. A previous version of this story included a mistyped name.