Perovskite display materials startup Helio raises Series A

Helio Display Materials Ltd. (Oxford, England), a startup developing metal-halide perovskite materials for display applications, has raised $4.75 million in a Series A round of investment.

The company has also appointed Valérie Berryman-Bousquet as vice president of engineering. Berryman-Bousquet previously spent 20 years in R&D of light emitting devices with Sharp Corp.

Helio Display Materails was founded in 2016 as Heliochrome Ltd. by Professor Henry Snaith of Oxford and Professor Sir Richard Friend of Cambridge. It is developing metal-halide perovskite materials as alternatives to quantum-dot and direct band-gap materials for displays in an attempt to create brighter displays that consume less power. The company claims that only a thin layer is needed to produce superior colours and increased power efficiency due to the high optical absorption of perovskites.

The Series A round was led byLongwall Venture PartnersandBGF. The money is being used to fund a move to custom-built labs at the Wood Centre for Innovation in Oxford. In 2010 Professor Snaith was also a co-founder of Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd. which has applied perovskite materials technology to the formation of efficient solar cells.

Helio Display Materials is led by Simon Jones, CEO, who was previously commercial director at FlexEnable Ltd. and previously worked at Liquavista and Plastic Logic. “Helio is on a mission to use our world-leading perovskite science to step up the performance and efficiency of displays. This fund raising marks a change of gear for Helio, enabling us to significantly grow our capacity to design products and engage with partners in the display supply chain,” said Jones in a statement.

Related links and articles: