TruTouch Detects New Funding, Partners

February 25, 2011 | Reprint from New Mexico Business Weekly; by Kevin Robinson-Avila

Stemming alcohol abuse might be just a finger touch away.

TruTouch Technologies is selling its second-generation device, which uses a flash of light to detect alcohol in individuals.

The company’s original prototype was a bulky, costly machine that cradled a person’s arm for testing, providing results in 60 seconds. Its new device is much smaller, less expensive and produces results in 10 seconds with a touch of the finger, said President and CEO Richard Gill (photo at right).

“We’re getting excellent traction in the marketplace,” Gill said.

The company formed in 2005 and began selling its first-generation device in 2007, generating $3.2 million in revenue by mid-2008.

The device uses infrared light on a subject’s skin to measure alcohol in the bloodstream, eliminating the need for invasive and time-consuming blood, breath or urine tests.

But manufacturing costs for the prototype undercut profit margins, Gill said. Production costs are lower for the new device, and its compact nature has opened more markets.

The company just signed two New Mexico-based customers: oil-and-gas firm Silver Oak Drilling LLC in Artesia, which is checking workers for intoxication as they come or go from shifts, and the Coca Cola Company’s distributing outlet in Santa Fe.

TruTouch received $2.1 million in venture capital in January, bringing total private equity to $7.5 million since 2005. It’s raising another $5 million round.

New funding will allow TruTouch to make its device even smaller for use in more markets. It also will pay for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval process to sell the device to hospitals, said Dave Durgin of the Verge Fund, which invested in the company.

TruTouch recently forged a new partnership with Takata Corp., a $5 billion global automotive components manufacturer, to help adapt TruTouch technology for use in vehicles.

TruTouch employs five at the University of New Mexico’s Science and Technology Park.

krobinson-avila@bizjournals.com | 505.348.8302