Focus Fund invests in beeOLED
KBC Securities’ Focus Fund invests in beeOLED innovators in the OLED who aim to solve the last big issue in OLED technology. It marks their first investment in Germany.
beeOLED, a Dresden-based deep-tech start-up, today announced it has raised EUR 13.3m for a Series A funding co-led by eCAPITAL and Innovation Industries. The round was joined by KBC Focus Fund as well as existing investors M Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), HTGF, TGFS, and JBN-Inves
Today, deep blue emitters in OLED displays are either stable (fluorescent emitters) or efficient (phosphorescent emitters, TADF emitters), but no market-ready technology delivers both of these important metrics at the same time. beeOLED’s intra-metallic emission technology has proven high stability and high efficiency when employed in other display technologies in the past, but, so far, had not been useable in OLEDs. The beeOLED team managed for the first time to make such molecules compatible with the vacuum processing technology used in high-volume OLED display manufacturing today – a technical breakthrough, protected by several patents, that was made possible by the team’s extensive know-how in ligand design.
Dr. Carsten Rothe, CTO of beeOLED, explains: “Our technology seamlessly integrates into existing OLED structures and established OLED display manufacturing technology. The technology allows for 100 percent internal quantum efficiency, a prerequisite for the highest power efficiency in OLED displays.”
Founded by veterans of the OLED industry and led by serial entrepreneur and Novaled co-founder Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, the company is aiming to solve the last major challenge of OLED displays: efficient and stable deep-blue emitters. The company will officially emerge from stealth mode with a presentation at the key industry event “International Meeting on Information Display” (IMID) in Busan, South Korea on August 25th.
beeOLED’s CEO Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth said “It's incredible to see that after all these years, this critical issue for OLED displays still hasn’t been solved. This creates a huge market potential for a materials provider. We are very happy that we not only found the solution to that issue but also were able to team up with such an amazing group of investors to fund the commercialization of this technology.”
Olivier Rits – Investment advisor KBC Securities “With the KBC Focus Fund we boost and support deeptech startups in West-Europe. beeOLED has a potentially ground-breaking solution for a clear need in the display market, a market we are following closely and have already invested in. It is therefore a great addition to our already existing portfolio of startups centered around IoT, semiconductor market and nanotechnology. We are looking forward working with the team and group of investors.”