Mobile Hot Shots
David Mendlovic, founder and CEO, Eyesquad
Ready, set, smile! The sight of youngsters snapping each others' pictures with their mobiles has become such a common occurrence, it’s hard to imagine that only several years back, they were a novelty item. Indeed, this year about 820 million mobile handsets will be shipped worldwide, according to analyst estimates, more than 60 percent of which will already include digital cameras.
Yet in spite of their popularity, mobile cameras still leave much to be desired. How can the camera quality be enhanced, the picture be made clearer and high-end features such as zoom be added—all at an affordable price?
A new Munich-based startup, Eyesquad, is tackling the problem. Drawing on patent-protected research, Eyesquad's technology enables the production of small and inexpensive camera phones with advanced features currently only available in digital cameras. Using existing production methods, the technology enables such cameras to offer improved image quality, continuous optical zoom, built-in auto-focus and close-up picture taking capabilities – all without using expensive moving parts or requiring lens shape-changing.
Eyesquad founder David Mendlovic, a former professor with Tel Aviv University, developed the technology over the past decade with collegue Gal Shabtay. Using a specially designed lens and "smart" digital signal processing, Eyesquad has found a way to direct more picture capturing elements (pixels) at those parts of the image where they are needed most, making better use of the pixels available in the camera to improve picture quality. "This is similar to the way that Nature does it in the human eye," says David Mendlovic, Eyesquad’s CEO.
Mendlovic’s first spin-off based on this body of research was Civcom, a U.S.-based maker of components for optical switches. But after five years as CEO, the itch to found another company overtook him. He and Shabtay, now Eyesquad's VP of R&D, joined with David Gasul, now the VP of Business Development, and founded Eyesquad. They decided to transfer some of the relevant Civcom-owned patents to a new venture that would take on the imaging market. They knew that the technology could be applied elsewhere, but made a concious decision to focus first on the burgeoning mobile phone market. "We saw that cameras for mobile phones was a much bigger market than the one for scanners and other applications," notes Mendlovic, who is one of those rare entrepreneurs that combines astute business sense with high technological capability.
Founded in November 2005, Eyesquad has since received €4 million in Series A funding in a round lead by BayTech Venture Capital. The company is now focused on getting its first products to market, which it expects around the second quarter of 2007, and is in discussions with major Asian and European handset operators about incorporating its products into their phones. It is also conducting trials with key lens manufacturers responsible for producing some 75% of the lenses on the market. Helping drive the company’s success is the new chairman of the board, Hans Wagner, a serial entrepreneur and cell phone industry veteran brought on board by investor BayTech. Wagner’s most recent venture was KIBI Mobile Technologies Ltd., an AIM-listed mobile content company.
"This is a great opportunity for us to have someone with this wealth of experience at the helm of our company," says Mendlovic.
Jude Ngu'Ewodo,
Partner BayTech Venture Capital
Mendlovic also says he's pleased by BayTech’s high level of commitment to the company, from conducting brainstorming discussions to helping the company determine where to best locate its R&D efforts. "It's been a really collaborative process," he says.
And although there are plenty of competitors trying to crack the same market, BayTech is confident that this startup team has the right stuff. "Eyesquad's unique combination of superior technology, its outstanding management and the lucrative market it addresses matches BayTech’s vision of a high-potential company," says BayTech partner Jude S. Ngu’Ewodo.
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