# SmartKem

Startup profile on Capital Atlas: https://capitalatlas.ai/startups/smartkem

- Industry: Semiconductors
- Headquarters: Manchester, UK
- Website: www.smartkem.com
- Total disclosed funding: $4M
- Latest round: Series A (Aug 13, 2014)
- Investors on record: 4

## About

Founded in 2009 by Steve Kelly and based in Manchester, UK, SmartKem, Inc. is a provider of organic semiconductor materials for the manufacturing of flexible electronics. In February 2021, SmartKem Limited completed a reverse acquisition transaction with Parasol Investments Corporation, where SmartKem Limited became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parasol and Parasol changed its name to SmartKem, Inc. In December 2024, SmartKem, Inc. received GBP 900,000 of grant funding from new investor Innovate UK.

SmartKem provides application-specific organic materials for making organic thin-film transistors backplanes and inktelligent ink that enables electronics with LCD infrastructure to provide OLED performance. SmartKem also has a technology called truFLEX® that can be used to deposits organic ink on a substrate at 80°C, allowing manufacturers to produce materials with six individually designed formulations. The transistor stacks made with its truFLEX® technology are flexible, bendable, wearable, and lightweight and can be used in the manufacturing of bendable smartphone displays, foldable laptops, TV backlights, wearables, fingerprint and X-ray detectors.

The company generates revenue by selling its customized organic semiconductor called inks and licensing its technology to electronics original equipment manufacturers and developers of printable electronics.

The company will use the funding to develop a rollable, transparent microLED display.

## Funding rounds

- Series A, Aug 13, 2014, $4M — BASF, Development Bank of Wales, Entrepreneurs Fund, Octopus Investments

## Investors

- BASF (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/basf) — Series A
- Development Bank of Wales (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/development-bank-of-wales) — Series A
- Entrepreneurs Fund (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/entrepreneurs-fund) — Series A
- Octopus Investments (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/octopus-investments) — Series A