OLED startup attracts $13.5m from global OLED panel makers
The Samsung Venture Investment has taken the lead in a $13.5 million Series A round of venture funding of Kyulux, a Japanese advanced materials startup that is commercializing the next generation of OLED display and lighting technology.
Kyulux is a leader in developing and delivering an advanced OLED material technology, called Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence or TADF. Kyulux develops and sells TADF and Hyperfluoresence based OLED materials and solutions to manufacturers in the display and lighting industries.
TADF was invented by Dr. Chihaya Adachi and his research group in Kyushu University. TADF is recognized as the third generation of OLED emitting mechanisms and enables 100% internal quantum efficiency in OLEDs without using rare metals such as iridium that are required for high efficient emission in phosphorescence. Hyperfluorescence was also invented in Kyushu University as the fourth generation emitting mechanism by combining Fluorescence and TADF to achieve highly efficient emission, low cost and high color purity, providing the best overall emission mechanism to date.
Participating in the funding round were global OLED panel manufacturers including Samsung Display, LG Display, Japan Display and JOLED, top tier Japanese venture capital funds, and a Japanese Government affiliated venture fund. Kyushu University also transferred a large portfolio of TADF related patents and equity participation by the university in the financing.
“This funding will allow Kyulux to develop TADF technology into the new de facto standard for OLED displays and lighting. Because our technology has achieved high efficiency and deep blue emission as well as red and green without using rare metals such as iridium that are required for the previous generation of phosphorescent emission that I was also an inventor of, we will now have an alternative that is better for the environment, cheaper to produce, and absent the finite limits that the supply of iridium would allow,” said co-founder Professor Chihaya Adachi, the inventor of TADF technology.
Junji Adachi, the visionary CTO of Kyulux who has led commercialization efforts for TADF for several years before co-founding Kyulux with Prof. Adachi said: “We are confident in our development progress with novel TADF materials especially with support from our corporate partners. We will be introducing the next generation of emitting materials to the market very soon. We believe OLED displays with TADF will be the most prevalent interfaces for IoT in the future.”
Source: www.electronics-eetimes.com