MicroLED Manufacturer JBD Secures Round-A3 Financing

Shanghai-based microLED display manufacturer Jade Bird Display (JBD) announced on August 10 that it has completed an A3 round of financing worth several hundred million yuan. The financing was jointly led by Eight Roads and Lightspeed China Partners, followed by original shareholders Co-Win Ventures and Panel Capital.

Founded in 2015, JBD is the first enterprise in the world with mass production capability of microLED display products. After securing an A2 round of financing in November 2021, JBD built a factory in Hefei covering an area of 79 mu (about 13 acres) with an initial investment of 650 million yuan ($96.2 million). It is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.

This factory will help the firm achieve the production capacity of an annual output of 120 million microLED display units, and will also provide stable production support for global AR glasses manufacturers. The newly raised funds will be used for technological R&D, mass production and market development.

Since last year, the concept of metaverse has gained momentum, while AR smart glasses represents an entrance that can really connect virtual world with reality. However, to invent AR glasses that look like ordinary glasses, the key is to make the microLED panels small enough to fit into the glasses’ legs, projecting the bright, clear and full-color pictures on the lenses. With the improvement of microLED technology, it is possible to do this and quicken the realization of the metaverse.

The company has been focusing on the R&D and production of ultra-micro display products below 0.5 inches since its establishment. At present, several hundred related patents have been laid out by the firm regarding the microLED display field. The company mainly provides solutions for industries such as near-to-eye display AR, automobile head-up display HUD, micro-projector, 3D printing, moving optical elements and square displays.

More importantly, JBD pioneered hybrid integration technology for fabricating wafer-level micro-display units, which got rid of problems of low transfer efficiency, low defective rates, high costs and inability to achieve PPI brought by traditional technology. The firm’s products thus have the advantages of high light efficiency, high brightness, high frame rate, high reliability, low costs and small size.

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The firm can provide monochrome microLED active matrix micro-display devices of 0.31 inches, 0.22 inches and 0.13 inches in batches. This series of devices has small size, low power consumption and high brightness. Recently, JBD disclosed its latest developments in self-luminous monolithic full-color microLED technology independently invented by itself, which will be applied to the AR field.