Back in November we reported that Plastic Logic was raising money from Russian investors to build a factory in Russia to produce the next generation of business-oriented e-ink readers (after the first generation Que failed entirely to get off the ground).
Now PaidContent is carrying more specific details about the investment from the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano). Rusnano is investing $150 million and Plastic Logic’s existing backer Oak Investment Partners is putting in another $100 million. Rusnano is going to help raise an additional $100 million with “partial guarantees” for financing, and the company plans to raise $400 million more “over the next few years”.
Details about what this “next generation” e-reader will be like are sparse, as are Plastic Logic’s plans for bringing it to market. However, Plastic Logic claims the factory will be able to produce “hundreds of thousands of units” per month beginning sometime in “2013/2014”.
I think it’s a pretty bold move to invest that heavily when the e-reader market is changing so fast that we can have no possible idea what it will even look like in 2013 or 2014—but I suppose nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hopefully this new venture will work out better for Plastic Logic than the Que did.
