October 25, 2011 – Marketwire — Bridgelux Inc., LED lighting developer and manufacturer, closed an additional $15 million in financing. The funds were needed to accelerate R&D and scaling of Bridgelux’s gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) light-emitting diode (LED) chip technologies.
The oversubscribed financing round included existing financial and strategic investors: VantagePoint Capital Partners, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Novus Energy Partners, IFA, Chrysalix, Harris & Harris Group, Craton Equity Partners, Jebsen Asset Management, and Passport Capital, among others. The company’s prior fundraising (series D) hit $50 million.
The goal is commercial-grade LEDs on silicon, commercialized in 2013, developed alongside Bridgelux’s GaN-on-sapphire arrays, said Bill Watkins, Bridgelux CEO. Bridgelux reported a new Lumens/W company record for Gan-on-Si LEDs in August 2011, claiming sapphire-like results.
The cost-reducing silicon-based technology could help the company take a larger market share of solid-state general lighting, which could grow from $3 billion in 2011 to more than $25 billion in 2015, Watkins said.
Bridgelux develops and manufactures solid state lighting (SSL). For more information about the company, please visit www.bridgelux.com.