The cloud-based print platform has received new funding which will allow it to offer digital printing solutions to campuses across America.
This week ink has revealed that, due to $7 million (€6.05 million) worth of new funding “led by VTF Capital, SQN Ventures Partners, Invest Nebraska, and NE Angels” – which brings its total up to $15 million (€12.97 million) – the print platform will now be able to offer its digital printing solutions to campuses across the country.
This new development on the part of ink comes in the wake of the increasing digitisation of society. The US print market currently rakes in $100 billion in revenue per year, and this is set to rise as people seek to print out not only “books, magazines and newspapers” but photos as well; students are even wanting to print out their textbooks, which they would prefer to read in physical form rather than by using an e-reader.
“Today’s students come to college with an average of seven smart devices–from phones and laptops to watches and music accessories. Though they are constantly connected, over 92 percent of students prefer print materials to using e-readers,” explains ink CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Manzi. “Kindles and Kinkos won’t cut it.”
With a recent survey revealing that millennials “still strongly prefer print for both pleasure and learning” and other findings demonstrating their penchant for printing “photos, labels and textbooks”, the institution of ink’s cloud-based printing platform “removes the friction from common hardware solutions”.
Earlier this year the company’s flagship product, the SmartStation, a “sleekly designed, intelligent on-demand print station”, was tested at Stanford University. This product allows users to “create print jobs remotely with one touch” and “seamlessly integrates with everything including GoogleDrive, Dropbox, Box, and more.”
Now ink has gone on to develop a “touch screen hardware plug-in and a cloud-based operating system, which, together, transform any printer into a print shop.” This plug-in, called inkTouch, “bypasses expensive, cumbersome on-site solutions” and overcomes the various errors which can arise from print integration.
Students can use the inkTouch to scan documents, view, arrange and edit files, “sign a specific page”, enter a mailing address, press the “send” button and ink will “sign, seal and deliver on their behalf.”
“Ink is the Kinkos of the future,” says Manzi. “When we looked at the market opportunity, we were amazed at how print, though the first industry to undergo a major transformation, hadn’t really evolved since our parents were in school. How can we be talking about self-driving cars when we still don’t have a modern printing solution? Now we do. And soon, we will have the modern bridge between the physical and digital worlds.”
inkTouch will be available in 30 American universities beginning in January, with additional campuses coming online in early Spring 2018.