MICROOLED announces €21M fundraising round to develop its AR technology

In Augmented Reality News 

July 13, 2023 – MICROOLED, a manufacturer of high resolution, low power consumption organic LED (OLED) microdisplays, has this week announced a EUR €21 million fundraising round, led by Jolt Capital, a specialist in private equity for responsible deeptech companies, with inclusion from the French sovereign wealth fund Bpifrance via its Innovation Defense vehicle, alongside historical investors, Cipio Partners and Ventech.

MICROOLED stated that this latest round of funding will enable the company to finance the development of its next range of full color, high luminance OLED solutions, to expand its manufacturing capabilities in Grenoble, France, and to grow its international sales teams in the security segment and the B2B ActiveLook platform model.

“We are very pleased with Jolt Capital and Bpifrance joining our cap table, and to see that our historical shareholders Cipio Partners and Ventech continue their support. All of them understand deeptech and the stakes of sovereignty,” said Eric Marcellin-Dibon, CEO of MICROOLED. “Innovation is at the heart of our strategy, and this new funding will allow us to double down on our efforts to bring to market the most disruptive technologies in the field of AR.” 

According to MICROOLED, OLED microdisplays demonstrate an excellent overall performance compared to classic LED displays, with OLED increasingly used for see-through Near-Eye Displays (NED) in viewfinder eyepieces for cameras. OLEDs have applications for the augmented reality (AR) smart glasses market, as these devices require the use of embedded microdisplays that can offer high luminance and contrast, but also very low power consumption from super lightweight batteries.

MICROOLED stated that it is among only a handful of international players who are able to design and manufacture these low energy consumption OLED microdisplays, and is equipped to address the needs of a range of markets. 

One example of the company’s offering for the consumer recreational markets is its ‘ActiveLook’ head up display (HUD) module, which can be embedded in a pair of glasses for real time visual information across hands free activity use cases such as sports. The module also has applications for the industrial or security sectors.

The company’s ActiveLook technology is used for smart sports glasses.

Since 2007, the Grenoble-based company has developed a wide range of core technologies derived from the semiconductor industry, protected by over 170 granted patents, through a close collaboration with neighbor CEA/Leti research centers. MICROOLED stated that it is perfectly positioned to become a leader in the field of wearable ultra-lightweight HUDs. To cater to the various needs for “light AR” applications, the company offers a line-up of compact products ranging from 0.2″ to 0.6″ in size, with high resolution and power as low as 1mW.

Commenting on the financing, Pierre Garnier, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, said: “MICROOLED is the archetypal growth deeptech company that we are looking for at Jolt. Patented core technologies in the field of semicon, a genuine potential to build manufacturing capacity in Europe, a series of fast growing B2B markets, and powerful but energy frugal products. We are delighted to have them join our portfolio and are looking forward to helping them scale to global leadership in light AR.” 

For more information on MICROOLED and its display technology for the augmented reality sector, including its ActiveLook module, please visit the company’s website.

Image / video credit: MICROOLED / ActiveLook / YouTube