China GPs back US tech player's Asian consolidation
Chinese investors have underpinned an $88 million Series E round of funding for Kateeva, a US electronics developer that operates in China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
According to a statement, Cybernaut Venture, GP Capital, Redview Capital and TCL Capital participated in the round alongside Chinese digital display supplier BOE Technology. Previous investors in the company have included Samsung Venture Investment, Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, DBL Partners, New Science Ventures and Veeco Instruments.
The capital will be used to drive new product development, expand manufacturing capacity and strengthen customer satisfaction infrastructure in Asia. Kateeva maintains two branch offices in Korea as well as a China and Taiwan sales unit based in Shanghai.
The company focuses on improving the fabrication processes for flexible and large-scale organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), which it has identified as experiencing increased demand in Asia's digital display manufacturing sector. Last year the company partnered with Japan's Sumitomo Chemical to accelerate the marketing of its YieldJet technology, which is used in high-volume assembly of OLEDs.
Digital panels using OLEDs and are considered brighter, thinner and more energy efficient than screens using more traditional liquid crystal display or plasma technology. The global OLED market is tipped to be worth more than $32 billion by 2020, with Apple expected to introduce the technology to its iPhone products in 2018.
Samsung was recently active in this space with a $13.5 million Series A round for Kyulux, a Japanese company developing fully-organic OLEDs aimed at reducing cost factors related to the industry's dependence on iridium.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.