ESPACE (Chinese: 艾斯谱光电) recently completed its Series A financing round, with participation from Jiangsu Shengkun Investment(Chinese:江苏盛堃投资), zycapital vc(Chinese:卓源资本), and Dongguan Guohong Investment Co.,LTD (Chinese:国弘投资)and Administration Commission.
Established in 2020 and headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, ESPACE has a registered capital of CNY 38.54 million. Its business scope includes research and development of electronic special materials, manufacturing and sales of semiconductor lighting devices, integrated circuit design, and manufacturing.
In the field of MiniLED, ESPACE has deployed CSP and COB packaging technologies. The MiniLED COB packaging technology has already achieved mass production, with a product yield rate as high as 95%. Currently, ESPACE is collaborating with strategic clients such as TCL, Samsung, and LG to achieve large-scale implementation of MiniLED packaging technology. In terms of production, ESPACE has a total of 38 production lines in its intelligent production bases in Huizhou and Dongguan, with a total production capacity exceeding CNY.3 billion Additionally, the production lines support ultra-precision SMT and professional wafer bonding SMT production equipment processes.
Currently, the LED industry chain in mainland China is actively deploying MiniLED-related technologies and products. For example, leading LED chip manufacturer Sanan has been mass producing MiniLED chips for domestic and international downstream clients such as TCL(Chinese:华星) and Samsung(Chinese: 三星电子) Electronics since 2020. On the packaging and testing end, mainland Chinese companies such as Nationstar(Chinese:国星光电) , Hongli Zhihui(Chinese: 鸿利智汇), and Refond (Chinese:瑞丰光电) have already achieved mature product shipments. Downstream application manufacturers are also making frequent moves. In 2020, Leyard(Chinese: 利亚德) and Crystal-Optech(Chinese: 晶元光电)established the world's first Mini/MicroLED mass production base in Wuxi, focusing on the research and development of massive transfer technology for Mini/Micro LED, as well as the production of self-emitting and backlight modules based on the integration of the entire industry chain.
Today, as consumers' demands for display clarity continue to increase and the emergence of new display technologies, the development of high-brightness, wide color gamut, high-resolution, and low-power new LED display technologies will be the main trends in the industry's future technological development.
In the field of Micro LED, ESPACE is focusing on technological breakthroughs and production line layout for Micro LED. The company plans to establish an overseas research and development center in South Korea to develop commercial packaging technologies for Micro LED. In April of this year, ESPACE further expanded its production capacity, and its MiniLED chip packaging and transparent display screen projects officially landed in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province. It is expected to achieve an annual output value of CNY 2 billion and tax revenue of CNY 100 million after the full production of the projects.
The funds raised in this financing round will be used to accelerate the industrialization of ESPACE‘s Mini/Micro LED packaging technology and equipment. Prior to this, ESPACE completed two rounds of strategic financing in 2020 and 2022, with Dongguan Sci-Tech Innovation Group as the investor in both rounds.