Lenovo invests in trackpad startup Sensel

Sensel’s journey has been an attention-grabbing a single to enjoy from afar. The agency crossed our radar several a long time back again, courtesy of its Morph product, a colorful and intelligent piece of components that works by using distinctive silicone skins to change a trackpad into a variety of enter products. In the long run, nevertheless, the startup learned the identical lesson as many in advance of it: Shopper components is wildly difficult.

In the long run, the business pivoted to offering its fundamental know-how to OEMs. Turns out the Morph was fairly a great proof of notion for its fundamental multitouch, haptic trackpad. It also turns out that a amount of laptop computer makers have been more than content to license it.

These days Sensel announced an $18.8 million Series B. Led by Worldwide Lighting Technologies Inc., the round follows a $28 million Sequence A and provides the Bay Area–based company’s funding up to $57 million due to the fact its 2013 founding. Notably, Lenovo also acquired in on the act this spherical. The firm has been a person of Sensel’s greatest hardware associates to day.

“Sensel’s aim of transport significant volume however price-effective haptic touchpads will be understood with our strategic module associate, GLT,” the company’s main solution and system officer Harsha Rao claimed in a release. “With any reducing-edge technology, fast scaling production is the holy grail. This partnership is essential to Sensel’s future phase, as it brings advanced automation, scale, and manufacturability to our ground breaking alternatives.”

The organization states the funding will go towards even more scaling its tech and R&D for foreseeable future goods.