Bridgelux Raises $60 Million for Advancing LED Lighting

To meet global demand for solid-state lighting, LED developer and manufacturer Bridgelux (News - Alert) has secured $60 million in series E round of financing, led by Craton Equity Partners, Southern California's leading clean tech private equity fund. Existing financial and strategic investors also participated in this round, including VantagePoint Capital Partners, DCM (News - Alert), El Dorado Ventures, Novus Energy Partners, Invus Group, VTS, Harris & Harris Group and Passport Capital among others, said Bridgelux.

According to Bridgelux, it will use the new funding to extend its leadership position in the solid state lighting market by accelerating research and development in key areas of strategic focus for the company. This includes GaN-on-Silicon development and LED Chip-on-Board technology, said the maker.

In fact, the LED maker is racing to commercialize LED bulbs as replacement for power consuming incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent lamps containing mercury. According to a recent announcement by the US Energy Department, if every 60 Watt incandescent bulb in the U.S. was replaced with a 10-W LED bulb, the nation would save about 35 terawatt-hours of electricity, or $3.9 billion, a year and avoid 20 million metric tons of carbon output.

Since the Governments around the world are promoting the use of LED lighting in a bid to save energy and reduce polluting emissions, Bridgelux expects the market for so-called solid-state lighting to triple this year to more than $3 billion.

"We are thrilled to partner with Bridgelux at this important point in the company's growth trajectory as it advances new lighting technologies that are more efficient yet lower-cost," said Kevin Wall, managing partner, Craton Equity Partners. "At Craton we continually strive to support standout sector leaders, like Bridgelux, that are positioned to address today's global clean energy challenges through the application of new technologies to massive markets."

"Craton Equity Partners is a top growth stage investor in clean tech, and we welcome their support as we work to expand the market for solid state solutions for general lighting - which we expect to triple this year to over $3 billion," said Bill Watkins, Bridgelux's Chief Executive Officer. "This additional capital will accelerate our breakthrough development efforts in producing commercial grade LEDs on silicon and in creating new packaging solutions for our LED chips. We think our proprietary innovation in both of these areas is critical to driving market adoption."

David Asarnow, principal, Craton Equity Partners, will join the Bridgelux board as an observer. Meanwhile, Bridgelux has achieved highest Lumens per Watt performance for its GaN LEDs, and is expected to announce this week.

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