mLED Ltd, a supplier of solid-state optical micro-projection systems based in Glasgow, UK, has received £378,000 of equity funding from Scotland-based Braveheart Investment Group plc. Braveheart's established network of private clients, the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund and members of both mLED’s board and technical advisory council contribute to the latest equity funding round.
 
mLED’s proprietary microLED platform technology was developed over a 10 year period at the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde, where over £7m was invested in research leading to the core patent. The firm was spun off in June 2010 with a £150,000 round of seed funding, led by investment from Braveheart via both the Strathclyde Innovation Fund (SIF) and the Alpha EIS Fund, supplemented by Scottish Enterprise's Scottish Seed Fund.
 
The microLEDs consist of dense arrays of thousands of high-brightness light emitters in a compact, integrated package. Unlike other micro-display technologies, microLEDs are pattern programmable and do not require external components such as optics and switching matrices to modulate the light pattern, making them more compact and efficient.
 
The programmable micro-pixellated LED technology is reckoned to bring an order-of-magnitude improvement in light intensity over current micro-display approaches. mLED reckons that its microLEDs can open up new segments within the nascent market for embedded pico projectors (in a broad range of portable devices, from bar code scanners to smartphones). It is therefore developing a roadmap of products aimed at a range of high volume embedded applications, and is already commercially engaged with leading system integrators.