China’s JBD, which develops next-generation display technology powering augmented reality (AR) and smart glasses, has raised over 1 billion yuan ($140.4 million) in a Series B2 funding round, it announced on Monday.
Shanghai-based JBD, fully known as Jade Bird Display, specialises in microLED display technology that uses millions of microscopic, self-emissive LEDs to create each pixel, allowing for vibrant colours, exceptional brightness, true blacks, and high energy efficiency.
While currently expensive and mostly available in large-format TVs, microLED is making its way into smaller applications like smartphones and wearables.
JBD’s production facilities, located in eastern China’s Hefei City, for which the company planned a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($210.6 million), concluded its Phase I construction in October 2023.
Touted as the biggest globally, its production facilities are projected to be able to deliver up to 120 units of microLED micro-display panels per year upon its completion and at full capacity.
JBD’s biggest funding round since its inception in 2015, the Series B2 round received support from two lead investors, including Chaos Investment and CITIC’s Goldstone Investment. A large group of investment firms participated in the deal, such as Lightspeed China Partners, Silver Cypress Capital, GP Capital, GF Qianhe Investment, and two subsidiaries of China’s CITIC Securities, just to name a few, according to a Monday statement by JBD.
The new funding will see JBD accelerate its microLED display technology innovation and product iteration. It plans to speed up the mass production and commercialisation of its microLED display offerings by collaborating with industry partners globally.
As of today, JBD’s microLED display solutions have powered nearly 50 smart glasses, including various models developed by Rokid, INMO, RayNeo, LLVISION, Halliday, and Alibaba’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Quark AI Glasses.
“We’re at a new starting point for a human-computer interaction revolution powered by AI plus AR,” said JBD’s founder and CEO Li Qiming in the statement.
The Series B2 round came less than two months after JBD announced the completion of its Series B1 round at “hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan.”
Its list of earlier investors includes Chinese carmakers BYD and Geely, Alibaba Cloud, and Ant Group’s unicorn investment fund.
