Slater invests $250,000 in software startup

PROVIDENCE – The Slater Technology Fund last week announced that it has provided financing to Public Display, a Providence startup that is developing Web applications to make it easier for consumers to find, organize and respond to digital information.
A Slater spokeswoman said the fund invested $100,000 initially, then followed up with another $150,000.
Public Display CEO William O’Farrell, the Brown University and Harvard Law School graduate who founded the company last year, has more than 15 years’ experience as a software entrepreneur, having co-founded three other companies.
One of those companies, SpeechWorks Inc., which commercialized speech recognition technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went public in 2000 and was acquired by Nuance in 2003. Another, The Company of Science and Art, developed the AfterEffects video-compositing software, which was acquired by Adobe in 1994.
“It’s gratifying having the support of Slater,” O’Farrell said. The fund’s investment “will help us attract the quality people we need to be successful.”