Bridgelux Raises Another $60M for Its Breakthrough LED Lighting Technology

Bridgelux Inc., which develops and manufactures LED lighting, has raised an additional $60 million in late stage fund Series E round.

Cleantech private equity fund Craton Equity Partners led the round, joining existing investors VantagePoint Capital Partners, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Novus Energy Partners, Invus Group, VTS, Harris & Harris Group and Passport Capital among others.

Bridgelux says it will use the new funding to accelerate research and development in key areas of strategic focus for the company, including GaN-on-Silicon development and LED Chip-on-Board architecture.

In March, the company announced a major breakthrough that could bring down the costs of LEDs. It demonstrated that  silicon-based LEDs can replace more the expensive materials that are currently used.

High production costs are inhibiting widespread adoption of LED lighting in homes and commercial buildings.

Using low-cost silicon wafers – which are commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing – could drops manufacturing costs by 75%, the company estimates. 

Bill Watkins, CEO of Bridgelux, says he expects the market for solid state lighting to triple this year to over $3 billion.

"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," Watkins says.

Bridgelux raised $50 million in Series D financing in January 2010.