10 March 2015

RayVio closes $9.3m Series B as it emerges from stealth mode

RayVio Corp of Haywood, CA, USA, which provides UV LED-based solutions, has emerged from stealth mode and raised $9.3m in Series B funding, with existing investors DCM Ventures and Capricorn Investment Group being joined by new investors including Applied Ventures, Augment Ventures, New Ground Ventures and Tolero Ventures.

RayVio says that the new capital will be used to accelerate its go-to-market strategy, grow its team, and enable mass adoption of UV LED solutions in the industrial, commercial and consumer sectors (e.g. for industrial curing, for UV medical treatment devices to treat ailments ranging from vitamin D deficiency to multiple sclerosis, and for the UV water, surface and air disinfection).

"This oversubscribed round is a great validation of our breakthrough technology and it will enable us to significantly expand our team and reach critical markets globally," says CEO Dr Robert C. Walker. 
RayVio's solutions employ what is reckoned to be a fundamentally new approach enabling the highest-performance, lowest-cost UV LED-based systems (claimed to provide up to 10 times the performance increase over existing products on the market). The technology targets consumer applications previously limited by cost and performance – ranging from hand-held portable disinfection devices to point-of-use water disinfection faucets that enable safer drinking water.

"UV LED light sources will significantly affect the use of UV disinfection technology by enabling a myriad of affordable, point-of-use disinfection applications, thus improving public health better than before," comments Dr Andreas Kolch, managing director & partner at Hytecon GmbH and former president of the International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA).

"RayVio's technology is coming to market at a critical time," reckons DCM Ventures' general partner Pete Moran. "Access to clean water and the growing prevalence of infectious disease are creating a greater need for solutions that are portable, cost effective and address these problems," he adds. "RayVio has hit the sweet spot of this formula with products that are now proven, and with the partners and customers that can scale globally."

Until now, LEDs for UV applications have been limited to niche markets due to low performance, high cost and compromised reliability, says RayVio. The firm reckons that its patent-protected materials and technology, originally developed at Boston University by co-founders Dr Yitao Liao and professor Theodore Moustakas, unleash 'Haitz's Law' for UV LEDs; the same Haitz's Law that made the mass adoption of cost-effective visible LEDs possible in the display and lighting markets.

Tags: UV LEDs Water purification

Visit: www.rayvio.com