Royole in Limbo
It is tough to compete against companies like Samsung, LG, Apple (AAPL) and Xiaomi (1810.HK) in the smartphone market, it is even harder if you are a ‘unicorn’ that came out of the chute with a ‘first’ that seems to have put to shame those who had such huge developmental resources. Such was the case with Royole (pvt), a company founded by Bill Liu and a group of Stanford engineering graduates in 2012. The company has received financing from a number of VCs totaling over $1.1b and was the first company to make available a foldable display, albeit only to developers.
The company has been in the tech press many times as it released various odd-ball products containing its flexible OLED displays but has been unable to gain real traction with smartphone brands, other than ZTE (000063.CH). Royole submitted documentation to be admitted to the Shanghai STAR Exchange, but terminated the listing (Royole also failed to qualify for listing in the US in 2019) and rumors of missed payments to employees began to surface late last year as employees began to post on social media about the missing wages, with statements that September wages were only paid in part and no wages were paid in October. At that time it was said that e-mails from the company’s founder stated that the company was working on financing and that wages would be paid in January of this year, with rumors of new financing raising the hopes of employees. Some of the wage arrears were paid in January, with the promise the rest would be paid after the New Year festival, however that has yet to happen and what little information that is available about the company, seems to indicate that production and yields at the company’s OLED fab are so low that it would be difficult to attract additional financing. While the company has partnered with a number of prominent luxury brands for one-off products, it seems that Royole is beginning to slip into the limbo where small display manufacturers who are unable to compete often go to slowly pass into display history.
The company has been in the tech press many times as it released various odd-ball products containing its flexible OLED displays but has been unable to gain real traction with smartphone brands, other than ZTE (000063.CH). Royole submitted documentation to be admitted to the Shanghai STAR Exchange, but terminated the listing (Royole also failed to qualify for listing in the US in 2019) and rumors of missed payments to employees began to surface late last year as employees began to post on social media about the missing wages, with statements that September wages were only paid in part and no wages were paid in October. At that time it was said that e-mails from the company’s founder stated that the company was working on financing and that wages would be paid in January of this year, with rumors of new financing raising the hopes of employees. Some of the wage arrears were paid in January, with the promise the rest would be paid after the New Year festival, however that has yet to happen and what little information that is available about the company, seems to indicate that production and yields at the company’s OLED fab are so low that it would be difficult to attract additional financing. While the company has partnered with a number of prominent luxury brands for one-off products, it seems that Royole is beginning to slip into the limbo where small display manufacturers who are unable to compete often go to slowly pass into display history.
RSS Feed