- University of Sheffield spinout company Pixel-Flo has raised £5.25 million in funding to drive the development of its revolutionary MicroLED manufacturing technology
- MicroLED is the next generation of displays for a range of consumer products such as smartwatches, car dashboard displays, TVs and PC monitors with superior brightness and energy efficiency, but current production methods are expensive and slow
- Pixel-Flo’s technology could manufacture MicroLED displays at industrial scale, making them much faster and significantly cheaper to produce, which in turn could make consumer electronics with the high-end displays more affordable
Next-generation screen technology, capable of making smartwatch, PC and other consumer electronics’ displays more affordable and durable, is being pioneered by a University of Sheffield spin-out company.
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 reduce the cost and speed up current production methods.
MicroLED is the next wave of display technology, offering up to five times higher brightness and enables the use of up to four times less power than displays that are currently used on a range of consumer electronics, such as 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 used to grow them to the display backplane - known in the industry as mass transfer.
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 Dr Rick Smith, Dr Suneal Ghataora, and Simon Jones. The company builds on novel semiconductor photonics research from Dr Ghataora in Dr 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.
Pixel-Flo’s international expansion ambitions are underscored by its recent hiring of a Taiwan-based Business Development Vice President, Sanger Hsu, focused on early customer engagement in a critical market for display technologies. Last year, Pixel-Flo was part of the NG Studios cohort, Northern Gritstone’s deeptech venture builder.
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.”
Professor Sue Hartley, Vice-President for Research and Innovation at the University of Sheffield, said: “Pixel-Flo represents the potential impact of the world class research taking place at the University of Sheffield and the importance of an innovation ecosystem backed by financial investment in helping to realise that potential. 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.”
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, said: “Pixel-Flo is a great example of the deep-tech innovation with global ambitions emerging from the Northern Arc that Northern Gritstone strives to support. As a graduate of our NG Studios venture building program, the company combines world-class science with a clear path to commercial impact. By developing a scalable, lower-cost solution, Pixel-Flo’s MicroLED mass transfer assembly process has the potential to unlock MicroLED displays for the mass market.”
John Williams, SCVC General Partner, said: "Deep Tech is full of breakthrough technologies looking for a problem to solve. Pixel-Flo inverted that - an elegant solution to the bottleneck that has held MicroLED back, a display technology that outperforms on every metric. The syndicate around them reflects what the management team has already built."
Anne Umbach, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, added: “From my experience in displays and printed electronics, I know all too well how challenging it is to scale new display technologies. Pixel Flo's approach targets precisely this critical bottleneck in the Micro-LED market - and this team has what it takes to deliver a key technology for the next generation of displays.”
