UK microLED manufacturing technology company Pixel-Flo, a University of Sheffield spin-out, has raised £5.25 million (€6.1 million) in an oversubscribed seed funding round to advance its proprietary Continuous-Flow Mass Transfer process and transition from laboratory development to industrial-scale manufacturing. The raise has direct relevance for display manufacturers and electronics OEMs tracking cost-reduction pathways for next-generation microLED production.

As reported by New Electronics, the round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from SCVC, the Parkwalk Northern Universities Venture Fund and German investment firm HTGF. The funding will support team expansion, relocation to larger laboratory and office facilities, continued product development and international customer engagement ahead of commercial deployment.

Founded in 2023 by Dr Rick Smith, Dr Suneal Ghataora and Simon Jones, Pixel-Flo has developed the Continuous-Flo platform, comprising two proprietary technology elements: microLED ink and an equipment extension of industry-standard coating tools. The process suspends microLED chips in liquid, then guides them into position on the display substrate using patterned surfaces and fluid forces, replacing the conventional robotic pick-and-place method.

MicroLED technology delivers between 2 and 5 times higher brightness and 2 to 4 times greater energy efficiency than conventional display technologies. However, volume adoption has been constrained by the fundamental scalability and cost limitations of existing mechanical mass transfer techniques, which position individual chips one at a time and are poorly suited to high-throughput production.

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 was a strong example of the deep-tech innovation with global ambitions emerging from the Northern Arc, and described the company as combining world-class science with a clear path to commercial impact. He added that by developing a scalable, lower-cost solution, Pixel-Flo's technology could unlock the commercial potential of microLED across a broad range of product categories.

To support its international expansion, Pixel-Flo has hired Sanger Hsu as vice president of business development in Taiwan, strengthening customer engagement in one of the world's leading display manufacturing markets.