Craton Equity Partners, Southern California’s leading clean tech private equity fund, has led a USD60 million round in Series E financing for Bridgelux Inc, a leading developer and manufacturer of LED lighting technologies.
Existing financial and strategic investors also participated in the round, including VantagePoint Capital Partners, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Novus Energy Partners, Invus Group, VTS, Harris & Harris Group and Passport Capital among others. Bridgelux 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, including GaN-on-Silicon development and LED Chip-on-Board architecture.
"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," says Kevin Wall (pictured), 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 USD3 billion," says 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."
