CEI Ventures has made a $500,000 seed investment in Junora Ltd., a manufacturing startup in Biddeford that is developing new technology for the global vacuum coating industry.
The company, founded by Dean Plaisted, a 30-year veteran of the industry, will use the funds to accelerate its development of new metallurgical products for use in vacuum coating with a goal of being ready for market by the end of the year. CEI Ventures is the company’s first outside investor.
Vacuum coating is when a microscopically thin film or coating is applied to certain materials in a vacuum environment. The process is called “sputtering” and is used across a wide array of industries and products, from biomedical to packaging to solar panels and semiconductors. The global market for sputtered films and sputtering targets is expected to reach over $3.2 billion by 2021, according to BCC Research.
Plaisted founded in Junora last year and already employs 12 people in Biddeford.
CEI Ventures, which is a for-profit investment fund of Coastal Enterprises Inc., and Plaisted are well acquainted. The former previously invested in Solaras Ltd., which is also based in Biddeford and is a global player in the vacuum coating industry, when Plaisted was its CEO. Plaisted spent more than three decades at that company until leaving in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. (Soleras Ltd. was acquired in 2012 and is now known as Soleras Advanced Coatings.)
“We look forward to another fruitful and rewarding relationship,” Nat Henshaw, president of CEI Ventures, said in a statement. “Dean is the kind of socially minded serial entrepreneur we love to partner with.”
Plaisted in February resigned from CEI Ventures’ board, a spot he’d held since February 2015, when discussions began about his new company accepting an investment.
“I am delighted to be back in the thin-films industry working with old friends CEI and CEI Ventures,” Plaisted said. “We are ambitious and optimistic for this new venture. Equity capital is critical to a fast-growing business.”
Junora plans to grow globally, but says it is committed to keeping its headquarters and a sizable manufacturing operation in Maine. It has already established a satellite site with two employees in Arizona.
The company has also engaged CEI’s Workforce Solutions group to provide specialized job training to low-income individuals in the Biddeford region.
