13 February 2012

Bridgelux gains $25m from China’s Kaistar

LED chip and lighting array maker Bridgelux Inc of Livermore, CA, USA (which claims to be the only vertically integrated manufacturer of LED solid-state light sources specifically for the lighting industry) says that China’s Kaistar Lighting (Xiamen) Co Ltd has agreed to invest $25m in the firm.

After originally focusing on designing and making its power LED chips - based on ITO/InGaN (indium tin oxide/indium gallium nitride) on 4-inch sapphire substrates - Bridgelux launched its first LED array product line in January 2009, followed in March 2010 by the ‘plug-and-play’ Helieon Sustainable Light Module (jointly developed with Molex Inc of Lisle, IL, USA) for industrial and commercial building owners. In May 2011, Bridgelux launched the third generation of its LED Arrays.

Last October, Bridgelux closed $15m in financing, raised specifically to accelerate research, development, and scaling of its GaN-on-Si LED chip technologies (which are targeted for commercialization in 2013), driving a transition from 4-inch sapphire to 8-inch silicon substrates. Previously, in early August, Bridgelux raised $60m in a Series E financing round led by Los Angeles-based Craton Equity Partners, taking total venture capital raised to about $180m. Total funding is now over $220m.

Bridgelux says it will use the latest equity investment to further accelerate research, development, and production of LED chip and packaging technology for general illumination applications.

“The market for solid-state lighting is expected to grow from $3bn in 2011 to more than $25bn in 2015,” says CEO Bill Watkins. “This investment marks the beginning of our cooperation with Kaistar to lead the transition to solid-state lighting,” he adds. “Kaistar's cost-competitive manufacturing capabilities combined with Bridgelux’s high-performance packaging solutions will continue to drive down the cost of solid-state technology for general lighting, helping to more rapidly expand the market for LEDs.”

See related items:

LED maker Bridgelux closes in on 100% revenue growth in 2011

Tags: Bridgelux LEDs GaN-on-Si

Visit: www.bridgelux.com