Quanlight raises $3 Millon in Series B
Quanlight Inc., a leader in developing high power, high brightness red light emitting diodes, has raised $3 million in its oversubscribed Series B offering. The financing was led by Blackbird Ventures and (SHW)2 Enterprises with a small group of private investors.
Harvey White, chairman of (SHW)2 Enterprises, has joined the organization as chairman of the board. White is a co-founder and former director, president and COO of Qualcomm, as well as the founder and former chairman and CEO of Leap Wireless.
“The technology is strong, and this round of financing should position us well for an additional round sometime in mid 2008,” said White.
According to company CEO Neil Senturia, the financing will be used to take the company from research and development to wafer production. Quanlight has developed novel material science that creates light emitting diodes (LEDs) with increased stability and brightness.
The patent pending technology for the San Diego based company was originally developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) by Dr. Charles Tu and Dr.Vladimir Odnoblyudov, Quanlight holds an exclusive license to commercialize the technology from UCSD, where Odnoblyudov worked on the technology for over three years before achieving his breakthrough.
Quanlight solves three problems in the red LED world. “We decrease the cost of manufacture, we increase stability at high drive currents, and we anticipate increasing brightness by a factor of more than two times,” said Odnoblyudov.
Targeted to the signal, signage, automotive, and theatrical/architectural lighting markets, this new LED chip offers significant advantages in cost per watt and performance over existing LED technology and is expected to expand the market by enabling applications not previously economically feasible. For more information, see www.quanlight.com .
Blackbird Ventures is a private, early-stage investment company launched by Senturia and his wife, Barbara Bry, to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies. (SHW)2 Enterprises is a private business development and consulting firm focused on growth-oriented technology products and markets.
