Novaled - Page 5

Novaled announced it has entered into a licensing and purchase agreement with Samsung Mobile Display (SMD). SMD committed to buy Novaled's dopant materials for AMOLED transport layers for several years. Novaled will also provide its PIN OLED technology to SMD.

Samsung has cooperated with Novaled since 2005, although this hasn't been officially declared until recently, when Novaled published some documents for their upcoming IPO. In September 2011, Samsung investment in Novaled (we do not know the amount). Novaled is offering OLED technology licensing, consulting services and OLED materials, and they also list LG Display as a customer. In 2011, the company reported €17.4 in revenues and a profit of €1.2 million.

Novaled is one of the most interesting OLED companies these days as it is getting ready for an IPO soon. 2011 was a good year for Novaled, with €17.4 in revenues and a profit of €1.2 million. The company is offering OLED technology licensing, consulting services and OLED materials. Samsung and LG Display for example, are using Novaled's materials, and someone once told us "everybody uses Novaled's materials".

Unfortunately, getting ready for an IPO also means that the company is currently unavailable to reveal new information... I visited Novaled's booth at SID, and indeed they couldn't tell me any news regarding the company, even ones that were revealed in the company's SEC filing. They did however exhibit several nice OLED lighting protoypes and products.

Novaled have developed a new class of n-doped electron transport layer (ETL) materials, suitable for both OLED TV and small mobile display applications. Novaled have developed two new new air-stable dopants (called NDN-77 and NDN-87) and two new host molecules (called NET-164 and NET-142). Combining these different materials can lead to different efficiency, voltage and lifetime in the final display.

Novaled says that the new materials can feature as much as double the lifetime compared to their previous materials.

Prof. Karl Leo from the Fraunhofer IPMS gives an talk about how to commercialize university technology. Karl Leo focuses on Organic Electronics and he already co-founded a few start-ups, including Novaled and Dresden microdisplay. The later part of the talk is devoted to OLED microdisplays - which Karl considers the most exciting thing he's ever done. Dresden Microdisplay is still looking for seed financing.

Karl also mentions a "killer lighting product" that needs financing, but he wouldn't disclose more info. During the talk, Karl says that OLED displays are already here - at least in smartphones. He believes that the next wave is OLED lighting, followed by organic solar cells and then finally organic electronics.

Novaled announced that they will be showing new OLED luminaries at the L+B 2012 show next week. They will be showing three new luminaries: a suspension light (Linfinity), a wall light (Lucentury) and a floor light (Trinity). These lamps include transparent OLEDs and are made from high-end, lightweight, stable and indestructible carbon fiber. Novaled will also show the Victory lamp in a wide range of colors.

Novaled also revealed a new lamp design called the PAD (named after the pad-like fingers of the red-eyed tree frog) - shown above. Here three transparent white OLED panels are used, but interestingly, when the panels are turned off, each will filter the ambient light to be in a different color (see on the right image above). The PAD was designed by Marcus Tremonto.

Novaled wants to raise $200 million on the NASDAQ or the NYSE, and today the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released the company's filing, which reveales some interesting details. Novaled is selling its doping materials (produced by BASF), licenses OLED technology and also offers R&D services

First of all, here's a summary of the company's financial statements (all in Euro): in 2009 the company generated revenues of €6.4 million and a loss of €1.3 million, in 2010 revenues of €6.8 million and a loss of €2.3 million and in 2011 €17.4 in revenues and a profit of €1.2 million.

Update: Reports suggest that Novaled wants to raise $200 million. We do not know the valuation though. Novaled saw sales increase 154% to $23 million in 2011 - with the company's first net profit ($4 million).

Last week we reported that Novaled is ready for IPO, and today it is official: the company filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. SEC for a proposed initial public offering (IPO). Novaled shares will list on the NASDAQ or at the NYSE. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Canaccord Genuity, Commerzbank, Cowen and Company and JMP Securities are acting as co-managers. Novaled is currently backed by Venture capital (including a recent strategic investment from Samsung in late 2011).

Novaled's latest major financing round was in January 2009 (they raised $11.2 million back then). The company says that their 2010 revenue were €11.2 million - and this was supposed to double or more in 2011 (although we do not have official information from the company yet). The company's major client is Samsung. Novaled provides technology and materials (non-emissive) for OLED displays and lighting panels. The company also has a line of high-end OLED lighting lamps called the Liternity.

There are reports that Novaled is ready for IPO and wants to list their shares on the Nasdaq within a few months. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs will prepare the flotation. Novaled is currently backed by Venture capital (including a recent strategic investment from Samsung in late 2011).

Novaled's latest major financing round was in January 2009 (they raised $11.2 million back then). The company says that their 2010 revenue were €11.2 million - and this was supposed to double or more in 2011 (although we do not have official information from the company yet). The company's major client is Samsung. Novaled provides technology and materials (non-emissive) for OLED displays and lighting panels. The company also has a line of high-end OLED lighting lamps called the Liternity.

Lux Research posted an interesting grid that shows how different display developers rate on technical value and business execution. It includes mature technologies (such as OLED and e-paper) and emerging technologies such as electrochromic and electrofluidic displays.

Lux says that OLED materials and equipment developers have a clear head start over other technologies, with notable players such as UDC, CDT, Novaled and Kateeva. The company that stands out in both technical value and business execution is E Ink - with high score in technology and IP and strong partnerships and management team. E Ink is the only company that scores a "strong positive" - with their nearly 100% market share of the electrophoretic market - which is used in products such as Amazon's Kindle and B&N Nook e-readers.

The Federal President of Germany Christian Wulff awarded the German Future Prize (Deutscher Zukunftspreis) 2011 to three organic electronics researchers: Prof. Karl Leo from Technical University of Dresden and Fraunhofer IPMS COMEDD, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth from Novaled and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer from Heliatek. Both Heliatek and Novaled are spinoffs from TU Dresden.

The German Future Prize is worth 250,000 euro and is Germany's most prestigious award for science and innovation. Congratulations guys!