Local glass-printing company Fracture has secured a second round of funding from the Naples-based Tamiami Angel Fund (TAFI) in a deal that could boost the company’s capital to more than $900,000.
After receiving an initial investment of $410,000 from TAFI in May 2012, Fracture has worked to increase its production and sales targets to prove that it can sustain a high level of growth.
Once investors saw the company’s steep progress from the previous investment, they decided to bump up the offered amount by breaking it into additional performance-based “chunks” of $125,000.
“Whenever we hit those progress milestones we can unlock the next level of funding,” CEO Abhi Lokesh said. “We enjoy that sort of performance-based understanding; it makes us have to prove ourselves and keeps us on our toes.”
Lokesh said the additional funding will immediately be put to use for external initiatives including marketing and brand partnerships. Although the company has turned to guerrilla marketing to get the word out about its product in the past, Lokesh said that style of marketing can only do so much.
“We need to be focusing more on publicity at a national scale,” Lokesh said. “So far we have been pretty under the radar. We feel we have a very compelling story to tell in that not many people are taking on the manufacturing challenge to produce more goods in the U.S. We are at the forefront of that.”
Fracture specializes in a digital print-to-glass manufacturing process that takes personal digital photos and prints them directly onto a piece of glass, resulting in a product that combines the photograph and frame into one seamless piece. Its pieces have been featured by NBC’s Today Show and TechCrunch.
The company launched its online marketplace in March, and hopes to continue its efforts to expand its customer base with the continued support of TAFI investors.
“We are excited and humbled that they have the faith in our company to continue to invest in us,” Lokesh said.
