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June 06, 2007
OptoGAN Raises €5M For Bright White Lights
Optogan has raised €5M in capital in a round led by Via Ventures, a fairly new fund out of Denmark. The Nordic Venture Fund and several local vehicles invested too to finance the development of LEDs that will compete with bulbs on price, according to its PR. [via Library House Weekly Newsletter]
That's a bold statement. Optogan makes gallium nitride semiconductor wafers that it aims to sell into high-brightness white LEDs (light emitting diodes) market. Gallium nitride LEDs for white light are not exactly cheap to produce so this startup must have developed a new and reliable process, maybe a nifty etching technique or deposition process. (image source: micronova)
HB LEDs are better than bulbs in terms of energy consumption and long life, but they have not yet been able to compete on price. Its website was down when we checked this morning so we are not sure what it's edge is at this time.
If they get this right, the returns could be stellar. Despite the large number of competitors, the market is huge and there are potential acquirers with deep pockets that will be courting it too.
Founded in 2004, OptoGAN has a German CEO, Bernd Meyer, whose name we recognize - he was in the founding team at another German VC-backed chip company called Nanosemiconductor that has pretty much moved to Silicon Valley. The inventors are Russian and the startup's early R&D is done in Finland.
Read Via Ventures press
Posted on June 6, 2007 06:30 AM | Posted to News And Updates | Permalink
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