University of Sheffield spinout raises £5.25 million Seed round
Pixel-Flo, a University of Sheffield spin-out addressing a critical bottleneck in MicroLED display manufacturing with its proprietary Continuous-Flow Mass Transfer technology, has raised £5.25 million in Seed funding. The round was led by Northern Gritstone with additional investment from SCVC, the Parkwalk Northern Universities Venture Fund, and German investment firm, HTGF.
Pixel-Flo is developing the cost reduction breakthrough critically needed for MicroLED display manufacturing, through its highly scalable, cost-efficient approach. MicroLED is the next wave of display technology, offering 2-5x higher brightness and 2-4x greater efficiency than traditional displays. However, volume adoption of microLED is currently limited by the fundamental scalability challenges of mechanical mass transfer techniques. By comparison, Pixel-Flo’s proprietary fluidic self-assembly technology offers extremely high continuous throughput, delivering the high-performance of MicroLED at radically reduced processing and material cost. This will allow MicroLED enabled products from smartwatches to TVs to be made available at mass market price points.
Pixel-Flo was founded by Dr Rick Smith, Dr Suneal Ghataora, and Simon Jones. The company builds on novel semiconductor photonic research 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. The latest oversubscribed funding round 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’s international expansion ambitions are underscored by its recent hiring of a Taiwan-based Business Development VP, 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.”
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.”
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.”
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