Elephantech

Elephantech is a Japanese deep-tech company working to decarbonize the electronics industry with its proprietary metal inkjet printing technology for manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCBs). The company was founded in January 2014 as AgIC Inc. by Shinya Shimizu and Masaaki Sugimoto, originating as a startup from the University of Tokyo. It was later renamed Elephantech in 2017.

Co-founder and CEO Shinya Shimizu holds a Master's degree in Information Engineering from the University of Tokyo and worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company before establishing Elephantech. His lifelong passion for science and engineering, combined with a realization that many university technologies were not being commercialized, drove him to entrepreneurship. Co-founder Masaaki Sugimoto has a Master of Science from the University of Tokyo and serves as a board member and Senior Vice President. The company name was chosen to be memorable across languages and cultures, reflecting its global expansion plans from the outset.

Elephantech addresses the environmental impact of traditional PCB manufacturing, which uses subtractive methods that consume significant energy, water, and chemicals, and generate substantial waste. The company developed an additive manufacturing process called the Pure Additive™ method. This technology involves printing silver or copper nanoparticles onto a substrate to form a circuit pattern, followed by an electroless copper plating process. This approach drastically reduces resource consumption, achieving up to a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions, 70% less copper use, and 95% less water consumption compared to conventional methods.

The company's primary products are flexible printed circuits, marketed as P-Flex®, which have been in mass production since 2020 at its AMC Nagoya factory. Elephantech became the first company in the world to successfully mass-produce PCBs using metal inkjet printing. Its business model involves initially manufacturing and selling PCBs directly to electronics companies to build a track record, with the long-term goal of selling its specialized inkjet printing systems and consumables to other PCB manufacturers. The company serves global electronics manufacturers and has formed strategic partnerships with companies like Logitech and Liteon Technologies. The technology is versatile and can be applied to various substrates, including polyimide, glass, and ceramic, opening up applications in semiconductor packaging and display manufacturing.

Elephantech has raised over $70 million in total funding from investors including Mitsubishi Electric, Seiko Epson, Mitsui Chemical, and Sumitomo. The company is focused on scaling up production to meet rising demand driven by the global focus on decarbonization and ESG goals. It is also investing in R&D to advance its technology, with goals to develop double-sided and multilayered PCBs.

Keywords: metal inkjet printing, printed circuit boards, sustainable electronics, additive manufacturing, flexible printed circuits, P-Flex, Pure Additive, decarbonization, copper nanoparticle ink, electronics manufacturing, green technology, resource efficiency, PCB fabrication, Shinya Shimizu, Masaaki Sugimoto, deep tech, electroless copper plating, sustainable manufacturing, circuit printing, eco-friendly electronics