Novel starburst-type carbazole trimers SB-1 and SB-2 were developed as hole-transporting host materials for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). The triplet levels (T(1)s) of SB-1 and SB-2 were determined as at 2.81 and 2.73eV, respectively. Also, these compounds afforded stable amorphous thin films upon spin-coating, and thus it was found that they are applicable to solution-processed devices. Indeed, blue PhOLEDs were fabricated by a solution method using SB-1 and SB-2 as host materials, where better device performance was obtained for the SB-1-based device due to its higher-lying T-1.