UK microLED start-up Pixel-Flo raises £5.25m
Pixel-Flo, a spinout from the University of Sheffield’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has secured £5.25 million funding to enhance microLED technology manufacturing, helping to cut costs and speed up current production methods.
MicroLEDs offer higher brightness and low power consumptiom for smartwatches, car dashboard displays, TVs and PC monitors. However, they are difficult to mass produce due to the challenge of moving the millions of microscopic LEDs from the wafer to the display backplane .
Pixel-Flo has developed an entirely new mass transfer process that could enable microLED displays to be manufactured at industrial scale and more cost effectively by unlocking economies of scale, making them much faster and significantly cheaper to produce.
The funding, led by Northern Gritstone, an investment company dedicated to supporting ambitious science and technology businesses in the North of England, with additional investment from SCVC, the Parkwalk Northern Universities Venture Fund, and German investment firm, HTGF, will support Pixel-Flo’s transition from laboratory development towards industrial scale-up, expanding their team and relocating to new lab and office space.
Pixel-Flo was founded by Rick Smith, Suneal Ghataora, and Simon Jones. The company builds on novel semiconductor photonics research from Ghataora in Smith’s lab, drawing on long-running LED research from the University of Sheffield's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Simon Jones's extensive display-industry commercial experience.
Rick Smith, CEO and co-founder of Pixel-Flo, said: “This investment allows us to expand our team and demonstrate our unique technology on a commercial coating system, enabling partnership and evaluation by display manufacturing partners. We are proud to have a fantastic international consortium of complementary investors led by Northern Gritstone supporting our international ambitions to enable huge new market opportunities for microLED.”
Sue Hartley, VP for Research and Innovation at the University of Sheffield, said: “The company’s approach to addressing a critical bottleneck in industry together with its international growth ambitions are an inspiration to other spinout companies emerging from the North of England. I am excited to see the company grow following this new investment.”
