Pelikon, a Cambridge-based company seeking to commercialise a range of plastic display technologies, has raised £5 million from a series of backers – including Advent Venture Partners, Gartmore and VCF – and will use the cash to prepare for an AIM launch anticipated some time next year.

Less than half a millimetre thick, Pelikon’s flexible light-emitting displays are billed as an alternative to LED technologies and can be cut to meet specific design requirements. Potential applications range from displays on microwaves, remote controls and even watches.

Advent has now backed the business on several separate occasions, playing a lead role in a £1.5 million fundraising in September 2004 and forming part of £3.4 million funding round in June 2003. In total, Pelikon has raised more than £15 million of venture capital funding in five years.

‘The new funding allows us to accelerate our growth curve while at the same time positing ourselves for the possibility of an AIM listing in 12 to 18 months,’ Pelikon chief executive Mike Powell says.