Lasers & Sources

Samsung funds Kyulux thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLED technology

April 7, 2016

Samsung took the lead in a $13.5M Series A round of venture funding for TADF OLED maker Kyulux.

Kyulux has received funding to accelerate its commercial TADF OLED technology; watch videos on their technology at http://kyulux.com/technology.html.

Advanced materials startup Kyulux, who is commercializing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display and lighting technology known as TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence), announced that Samsung Venture Investment Corporation took the lead in a $13.5 million dollar (1.5 billion Japanese yen) Series A round of venture funding.

Participating in the 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 announced the transfer of a large portfolio of TADF related patents and equity participation by the university in the financing.

Co-founder professor Chihaya Adachi, the inventor of TADF technology said, "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."

See a video on the TADF technology related to an EU Horizon 2020 project:

Christopher Savoie, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Kyulux stated, "We are very glad to announce this significant funding milestone and the agreement on technology transfer with Kyushu University. We have brought in some key global OLED leaders and world renowned investors who will give us a strong base to accelerate the market for this next generation of OLED technology."

Apple recently reported plans to begin using OLED display technology for its devices such as the iPhone starting in 2018. This move by Apple will cause the global OLED market to increase dramatically. OLED market researchers estimate that the OLED market will reach more than $32B worldwide in 2020.

Kyulux develops and sells TADF and hyperfluoresence-based OLED materials and solutions to manufacturers in the display and lighting industries. Founded in 2015, the Company currently owns or has exclusive or co-exclusive rights to a large TADF intellectual property portfolio developed over the past seven years at Kyushu University and its industrial partners.

SOURCE: Kyulux; http://kyulux.com/news.html

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.