Elephantech raises 2.15 billion yen through third-party allotment of new shares.
-Total amount raised reaches 7 billion yen-

Elephantech’s mission is “Making the world sustainable with new manufacturing technologies.” Since its establishment in 2014, Elephantech has been developing an inkjet printing-based electronic circuit manufacturing technology that can reduce CO₂ emissions by 77% and water consumption by 95% compared to conventional manufacturing methods. After six years of basic research, we succeeded in starting mass production in 2020, and since then mass production has been adopted in the market. Two years into mass production, we have not experienced any recalls, enhancing trust in our technology’s reliability.

Through this funding, we aim to achieve the following two goals.

1. Full-scale global expansion
2. Expanding applications through further research and development

We have succeeded in achieving the target milestone we set during our previous round of fundraising, “operation of a large-scale mass-production demonstration plant,” and our P-Flex® flexible printed circuit boards manufactured by inkjet printing have entered mass production and been installed in mass market electronic devices like displays and sensors. We believe that the achievement of the difficult business milestones of scaling up from laboratory to mass production, and entering mass production in general electronic devices, are big steps toward the future we are aiming for.

Now that we have succeeded in mass production, our challenge is to achieve global standard status as fast as possible, and we believe that the two points above are the keys to achieving this goal.

Regarding the former, our products do not require localization. They can be used anywhere in the world, and our production plan is already mainly for overseas rather than domestic shipments. However, our mass production facility in Nagoya is currently the only facility capable of manufacturing this product. Therefore, the globalization of our business is still progressing. Our company’s structure must overcome challenges to full-scale global expansion.
Printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing is a market worth more than US$100 billion, yet it is an industry with a very high environmental impact and increased supply chain dependency risk. We believe that our technology is the only solution in the world that can contribute to solving these issues, which are becoming more significant than ever.
In the future, we will fully engage in global expansion to achieve discontinuous growth as an exceptional solution for areas where such issues are pressing problems.

Concerning the latter, we are currently mass-producing only single-sided flexible substrates among the many types of printed circuit boards. In addition to traditional needs for PCBs such as double-sideness, multi-layering, miniaturization, and rigidity, we believe that new requirements will expand in the future, such as printing on biomass substrates and the use of recyclable materials, and we will expand the application area of this technology while capturing such needs. In principle, our technology can be applied to almost all printed circuit board production types, and we will continue to expand our product lineup through further research and development.

Comment from Shinya Shimizu, CEO & CTO of Elephantech Inc.

Almost nine years have passed since our company was founded in January 2014, and our mission has consistently been to create a sustainable world through resource- and energy-efficient manufacturing technologies. However, nine years is not a short period, and there have been long periods when it was difficult to see what the future would bring, such as when technology would be ready to mass-produce our products and when the market would come to value sustainability. I am proud of our team’s perseverance in moving forward, and of the fact that we have cleared the technological hurdles to mass-producing our product, and that we have been able to advance our business to this moment when the market needs for sustainability are emerging more rapidly than we had imagined. I am also very grateful to our stakeholders who have supported us in this endeavor.
From here, we will finally make our manufacturing method the global standard. And by doing so, we will solve the world’s sustainability issues. Toward this end, we are glad to welcome our new investors who will walk with us and do our best to solve the world’s problems in the fastest possible time.

Comment from Mr. Sameshima of ANRI

We are glad to join Elephantech as a new shareholder. Our company’s inkjet printing electronic circuit manufacturing technology can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions and water consumption compared to existing methods. While considering investing in this technology, we have received inquiries from several major companies. We expect that the market for this technology will expand soon.
I have experienced firsthand the significant change in the way we are working to achieve the goals of Mr. Shimizu and the management team. In addition, Mr. Shimizu and the other members of the management team are aiming to climb to a market capitalization of 1 trillion yen. The future of Japan is in our hands, and we will do everything we can to continue to lead the Japanese market, and the world.”

Comment from Mr. Onishi, Director, Office of the President, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Elephantech’s metal inkjet printing technology contributes to the realization of a sustainable society by making it possible to manufacture electronic circuit boards in a resource- and energy-efficient manner. In addition to its technological capabilities, we are confident that the company’s speed and the leadership of President Shimizu will enable it to further strengthen its share in the future.
In addition, the company’s technology has a wide range of applications, and we believe there is significant room for growth. As a chemical and materials manufacturer, we are delighted to have the opportunity to be involved in this new type of manufacturing.”

ANRI V Investment Limited Partnership
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
NOSE Inc.
NOSE INVESTMENT LLC
Shizuoka Capital Company Limited
Shizuoka Capital No. 9 Investment Limited Partnership
Eiwa Corporation
Nanobank
Kebishi Sake Brewing Co. Ltd.
MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC.
D&I Investment Co., Ltd.
Nanto CVC No.2 Investment Limited Partnership
Nanto CVC No.3 Akebono Investment Limited Partnership
Gunma Regional Co-creation Limited Partnership
SuMi TRUST Innovation Investment LPS

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