Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Fumio Ito) has
completed a strategic investment and launched a strategic alliance with Vitriflex, Inc.
(Headquarters: San Jose, California, USA; President & CEO: David R. Parker). Vitriflex
develops ultra-barrier films for use in solar and display applications.
Kuraray selected Vitriflex for this joint venture due to the long-term corporate vision of accelerating the global expansion in its core businesses as well as developing next generation businesses including environmental products, energy, optics and electronics.Kuraray has been actively exchanging technologies with ventures
and other companies that possess technologies that allign with the Kuraray corporate vision.
Kuraray chose Vitriflex, Inc. due to their development a proprietary technology for transparent ultra-barrier films that have the world’s highest level of barrier performance.Future applications for this product include glass-replacement in electronic device. The use of this type of barrier films makes it possible to produce lightweight, flexible devices, an advance that will be key to the creation of next-generation electronic products.
As continued development of this technology aligns with Kuraray’s business policy of
placing greater importance on the field of “optics and electronics,” the Company was
pleased to make its investment in Vitriflex. The funds will be used to accelerate
Vitriflex’s production scale-up.
About Vitriflex Inc.
Vitriflex is a leading developer of high-performance barrier films for flexible electronics, founded in 2010, and based in Silicon Valley in California. Vitriflex ultra-barrier encapsulation provides cost-effective protection from moisture and oxygen, improves lifetime and reliability, and has the added benefits of being flexible, thin, lightweight, and shatterproof. Vitriflex enables exciting new categories of flexible solar modules, next generation OLED and LCD displays, and solid state lighting.