INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tocano, a spinout from Delft Technology University in the Netherlands which is working on an inkless printing technology, has closed a
€1 million angel round to fund the next stage of its tech development and move a step closer to building its first commercial product.The
startup began as the graduate student project of co-founder Venkatesh Chandrasekar who, along with fellow student Van der Veen, founded the
business in 2015, gaining early backing from the university.The team now consists of eight employees and is part of the business incubator
Yes!Delft.Now it’s true there are already some ‘inkless’ printing technologies in use commercially
One we covered back in 2009 is Zink: A color printer which doesn’t require ink cartridges in the actual printer; but does require special
Zink photo paper which has colored ink embedded in it
So an ‘inkless printer’, technically, but not actually ink-less technology.Tocano’s tech — which it is branding Inkless — has a
much cleaner claim to the name because it doesn’t involve having to use ink-saturated paper
Nor any other type of special paper, such as thermal-coated paper — which is another type of inkless printing already in use (such as for
receipts).Rather they are using an infrared laser to burn the surface of the paper — so carbonization is being used as the printing
medium.And they claim their technique is able to produce black and white printing with blacks as dark and stable as ink-based prints
Though, clearly, they’re still early in the development process.Here’s a photo of their current prototype, alongside a sample of text
printed with it:The angel funding will be used to try to reach what they dub “a competitive printing performance”
After which they say they’ll need to raise more money to build the first product — so they’re already planning the next financing
round (for the end of the year).“With this money we can make our technology ‘development-ready’, which means that we can meet the
required quality and speed performance requirements so that we can begin with the development of our first product”, says co-founder and
CEO Arnaud van der Veen in a statement.“[The] next round will either be financed by strategic partners or venture capitalists
The first meetings have already taken place.”If they can successfully productize their laser carbonization technique the promise is
printing without the expense, waste and limits imposed by ink refills plus other consumables.“I always compare this to the transition from
the analogue camera to the digital camera,” says van der Veen. “Suddenly people were able to make unlimited photos and it was not
needed to replace the films
Likewise, with our printing solutions, refill and replacement of ink and consumables will not be needed.”Though quite how expensive the
next-gen laser printer machines themselves will be if/when they arrive on shop shelves remains to be seen.Tocano says its first product will
be aimed at industrial users for packaging and labelling use cases — such as printing barcodes, shelf life data and product codes on
packages and labels.Its ambition is to range out after that, bringing additional printer products to market targeting other business users
— and eventually even the consumer market.“Our first product will fit [the packaging/labelling] market but after that we will make the
technology accessible for production printers, office printers, consumer printers and receipt printers
In all these market we can offer the same advantages, a cheaper and more sustainable printer without any hassle with ink, cartridges or
