tech:

taffy

Kateeva Raises $88M Series E Round

Kateeva, a Newark, California-based company working on an inkjet printing manufacturing equipment solution for OLEDs that can be used to mass-produce bendable displays that can be folded, has closed a Series E funding round with $88 million in financing.

The new Kateeva investors are BOE, Cybernaut Venture, GP Capital Shanghai, Redview Capital, and TCL Capital, all located in China. They join existing investors Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC),  Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, DBL Partners, New Science Ventures, and Veeco Instruments. New Board seats will be filled by executives from BOE, Redview Capital, and TCL Capital. The company has raised $200 million since it was founded in 2008.

Kateeva says the funds will accelerate new product development, as also help the company expand manufacturing capacity at its Silicon Valley headquarters.

The market for plastic and flexible OLED displays will reach $2.1 billion, says Guillaume Chansin, senior technology analyst at research firm IDTechEx. By 2020, it is estimared to surpass $18 billion. While mobile phones and wearables are currently the two main applications, the technology can be expected to be found in tablets and automotive in the coming years.

Just in

Generative AI arrives in the gene editing world of CRISPR — NYT

New AI technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, pointing to a future when scientists can battle illness and diseases with even greater precision and speed than they can today, writes Cade Metz.

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will offer its virtual reality OS to hardware companies, creating iPhone versus Android dynamic — CNBC

Meta will partner with external hardware companies, including Lenovo, Microsoft and Asus, to build virtual reality headsets using the company’s Meta Horizon operating system, writes Kif Leswing. 

Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone — The Verge

Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users, writes Tom Warren.