Kyulux has announced today that Samsung Venture Investment Corporation took the lead in a US$13.5 million (¥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.
Kyulux said that Apple has been rumoured to be planning to use OLED display technology for its devices such as the iPhone starting in 2018. Such a move by Apple could cause the global OLED market to increase dramatically. OLED market researchers estimate that the OLED market will reach more than US$32B worldwide in 2020.
Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (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, very low cost and high color purity, providing the best overall emission mechanism to date. Kyulux Inc. is focused on commercialization of TADF and Hyperfluorescence for the next generation of OLED Display and lighting.
A molecule that has a small energy gap between singlet and triplet energy states (⊿Est), enables up-conversion of excited energy from triplet to singlet spin. This provides highly efficient photonic emission from the singlet energy state in the form of delayed fluorescence.
Professor Chihaya Adachi, Co-founder and inventor of TADF technology said, "We are extremely pleased with the enormous response we have had from strategic partners and investors. 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."
Dr. Christopher Savoie, CEO of Kyulux, said, "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."
Junji Adachi, CTO of Kyulux, who has led commercialisation 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."