Solid - State Lighting Investor Forum

 SPONSORED BY:

The Solid-State LIghting Investor Forum provides a unique opportunity for venture capitalists and investment bankers with portfolios in the clean tech and green tech sectors to learn about investment opportunities in solid-state lighting. CEOs from a selection of the leading start-ups in this field, from all levels of the SSL supply chain, will provide investors with details about their company‘s technology, business plan, and prospects for growth.

February 7, 2012          9:00am – 5:00pm

As the LED lighting market moves from niche applications into the mainstream of general illumination, a large number of companies are being founded to develop innovative technology at all levels of the supply chain, ranging from light sources, to drivers, optics and thermal management solutions, to complete luminaires. The Second Annual Solid-State Lighting Investor Forum will provide an opportunity for pre-public companies involved in different aspects of LED lighting technology to present their companies to a selected group of investors from the venture capital and investment banking communities.   The brief presentations provided during the Forum will lay the groundwork for further detailed one-on-one meetings between companies and investors who wish to follow up with more in-depth discussions.

Worldwide High-Brightness LED Market Overview and Forecast

Tuesday, February 7          9:00am – 9:30am

Presenter :
Ella Shum
Director of LED Research
Strategies Unlimited

This presentation will provide a review and update of worldwide market developments in HB LEDs  in 2011 and an outlook for 2012.  Top level market growth trends will be discussed, as well as developments in each of the major application areas, including lighting.  In addition, a market forecast through 2016 will be presented.

As Director of the LED Market Research at Strategies Unlimited, Ella Shum draws upon her LED-related experience, most recently as General Partner at YEBY Associates, a consulting firm specialized in the LED industry.  While at YEBY, she was part of the initial phosphor sales team for Intematix and an early advisor to China’s SSL program.  Other previous positions include Managing Director of the R&D Lab at Emcore where she managed the development of TurboDisc reactors and epi research including LED technology, and Vice President and Chief of Staff at BroadVision Inc.  Shum received her MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and her B.Sc. in Computing Science from Imperial College, London.

Company Presentations

ARC ENERGY             9:30am – 9:45am

Presenter:
Hap Hewes
Senior VP, Sales, Customer Support & Operations

Advanced RenewableEnergy Company LLC (ARC Energy) provides innovative semiconductor scale technologies, turnkey solutions and expertise for companies to meet the demands of the solid-state lighting and other clean energy markets. With several leading customers worldwide, and successful turnkey installations at customer sites, ARC Energy continues to aggressively hire skilled employees to meet the growing demand for our technology and services.

Hap Hewes is  senior vice president of ARC Energy and is responsible for end-to-end customer success - from sales to operations to field service. He has been instrumental in expanding ARC Energy’s customer base and rapidly scale the company into clean technology markets.

HELIODEL        9:45am – 10:00am

Presenter:
Giorgio Anania
Cofounder & CEO

Founded in Q4 2010, HelioDel is a technology spinout from the CEA/Leti microelectronics and nanotechnology labs in Grenoble.  HelioDEL has developed and patented a GaN nanowire LED technology fully scalable and compatible with high-volume CMOS foundries.  This allows the manufacturing of high-brightness LEDs on large-area silicon wafers at significantly lower cost than that of competing planar LED solutions and allows multiple colors to be made on the same wafer.  It also enables a fabless business model leveraging the existing base of standard CMOS silicon foundries.

Giorgio Anania, cofounder and CEO of Heliodel, was previously CEO of Bookham Inc. (San Jose), which he took from zero sales to revenues of $250 million/year and 2500 staff in three continents, becoming the world’s third largest supplier of optical components.  He has done two successful IPOs, run publicly quoted companies in the US and the UK, and raised almost $1 billion in equity financing. He is advisor to two large private equity funds, Chairman of Cube Optics AG, and Board member of Photonics 21, a European lobbying group he cofounded.  He was previously with Flamel Technology (France), Raychem (Menlo Park), and Booz Allen (New York). Dr. Anania has a PhD in thermonuclear fusion from Princeton University and a BA from Oxford University (UK). 

LEDDARTECH          10:00am – 10:15am

Presenter:
Mark Tremblay
CEO
Leddartech

LeddarTech is the leading provider of advanced 3D detection and ranging systems based on LED lighting. With customers spanning the globe, LeddarTech’s Leddar™ technology provides accurate, non-intrusive detection of vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians for traffic management systems. LeddarTech’s technology also provides object detection for advanced driver assistance systems for the automotive market as well as safety systems for industrial applications. LeddarTech was launched in September 2007 following a successful spin-off from Canada's leading optics and photonics research institute, INO. LeddarTech’s engineering experts and specialists combine over 100 years of relevant experience in the fields of photonics, signal processing, electronics, microelectronics, software and mechanical engineering.

In 1996, after teaching in the Electrical Engineering Department at Laval University, Marc Tremblay was the CEO of a first spinoff based on his research program. This company was acquired in 2000 by the largest US publicly traded robotics organization. In 2007, Marc cofounds LeddarTech and has set the pace in raising over $ 7 M in capital. Marc received his degree in electrical engineering from L’École Polytechnique de Montréal and completed his PhD in microelectronics applied to machine vision at Laval University.  

ONCHIP DEVICES, INC.    10:15 am – 10:30am

Presenter:
Ashok Chalaka
President & CEO
OnChip Devices, Inc.

OnChip Devices, Inc. head-quartered in Santa Clara, CA is a global leader in providing Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection Devices, Transient Voltage Suppressor (TVS) Diodes and Submounts for LEDs.  With an advanced wafer fabrication facility in Silicon Valley and strong partnerships with full turn-key assembly/test houses in Asia, OnChip is offering low cost as well as state-of-the-art silicon and ceramic solutions to several major High-brightness and Power LED customers worldwide.

Ashok Chalaka is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of OnChip Devices, Inc.  Prior to starting OnChip in 2007, he was with California Micro Devices (CMD) for 21-years in various executive management positions in Sales & Marketing including Vice President & General Manager.  He was given a "Life Time Achievement Award" by CMD for establishing the company as the Premier Supplier of Integrated Passive Devices.  Ashok has a MS/Engineering from University of Cincinnati and a BS/Technology from JNTU University in India.  He holds 4 Technology Patents related to ESD Diodes and LED Transient Voltage protection. 

Dynamics of LED Driver Technology and Markets

10:45am – 11:15am

Presenter:
Tom Hausken
Director, Optoelectronic Components
Strategies Unlimited

The driver is critical to the overall performance of an LED system, especially regarding efficiency, reliability, price and special features such as dimming. But, technical discussions often require a “deep dive” for which few customers have the expertise or patience.  This presentation will explain some basic concepts about drivers and driver ICs, discuss high-level trends in technology and present a market overview.  Some examples from suppliers will be shown to highlight recent innovations.

Tom Hausken , Ph.D. has over 25 years in the semiconductor and optoelectronics industries, spanning device and materials research, product development, laboratory management, and technology and market analysis. Since joining Strategies Unlimited in 1999, he has specialized in studies of optical and electronic components for optical networks, and image sensors. Previously, he was a coordinator for the U.S.-Japan Joint Optoelectronics Project with the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA), and was also a technology policy analyst at the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.

XERALUX            11:15 am – 11:30am

Presenter:
Rusty Cumpston
CEO

 
IWATT INC.   11:30 am - 11:45am

Presenter:
Ron Edgerton
CEO
iWatt Inc.

Privately-held iWatt, Inc. is a power control IC company that designs, develops, and markets semiconductor products for the communication, consumer market and LED solid state lighting segments. The company's patented digital control expertise raises the bar in power supply price/performance metrics. iWatt is currently working with market leaders in the communications, networking, flat panel display, LED solid state lighting and consumer electronics markets to develop high-density, high-value AC-DC, and DC-DC power supplies. iWatt is backed by VantagePoint Capital Partners and Sigma Partners, two leading CleanTech investors, and Horizon Ventures.  The company is headquartered in Campbell, CA with additional offices in Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; Shenzhen, China; and Hong Kong.

Ron Edgerton became CEO of iWatt in March 2008.  At that time iWatt had been in existence for eight years and had brought to market three products while developing leading edge dynamic power IC’s.  Since 2008, iWatt has brought to market over 30 products that establish iWatt as a leader in AC-DC markets, LED solid state lighting markets and the TV power IC market.  Prior to joining iWatt, Mr. Edgerton was President, CEO and Chairman of SigmaTel.  SigmaTel was a leading innovator in MP3 chips and achieved over 60% market share because of Mr. Edgerton’s decision to focus SigmaTel on the MP3 market before other companies realized the growth opportunity.  Mr. Edgerton won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Central Texas and was one of three national finalists in 2005.   

EUTRICITY   11:45am - 12:00pm

Presenter:
Brent Marsh
CEO
Eutricity

Main Focus of the Company:  Power architecture that enables multiple LED applications; without the need for driver ICs, little or no need for heat sinks, and the lowest power supply cost/lamp.  It also enables real time blending of on-site DC from renewable and storage - with grid AC - to directly power the lighting – to form a market reactive system, with UPS capability. 

Brent Marsh founded six energy-related startups over 27 years in Taiwan and San Francisco, including three investor-funded companies.  His experience ranges from manufacturing wind turbines and lighting controls, to founding an ESCO, to three energy efficient lighting technology startups.  He has been granted seven patents out of fifteen filed and pending.

LED lighting Market--Global Market Review

1:00pm - 1:30pm

Presenter:
Vrinda Bhandarkar
Director of Research, LED Lighting,
Strategies Unlimited,

The presentation will discuss the major drivers for LED lighting market growth.  The factors that affect market adoption rates, potential technological and market challenges faced by the LED lighting in different applications will be discussed. After reviewing the market for LED lighting in 2011, a preliminary forecast will be presented for 2011-2016.

Vrinda Bhandarkar joined Strategies Unlimited in 2006 to track the emerging LED lighting markets. Since joining Strategies Unlimited, Vrinda has written reports on HB LEDs in Lighting, LED Lighting Luminaires/Fixtures, LED Luminaires in  Outdoor Lighting and LED Replacement Lamps, and LED Driver ICs.

XICATO           1:30pm – 1:45pm

Presenter:
Menko Deroos
CEO
Xicato

Xicato is a recognized leader in the  Solid State Lighting module market, founded by seasoned industry professionals with offices located in Silicon Valley, California (HQ), London and Tokyo.  Xicato develops, manufactures and globally markets LED modules that simply are functional replacements for traditional lamp technologies, offering all the life and energy-saving advantages of LEDs with no aesthetic compromises. Xicato highly recommends the use of a qualified lighting designer from the PLDA or IALD.

After 10 years with Philips Lighting in a variety of technical and general management functions in various intercontinental locations (Belgium, Shanghai, Italy), Menko Deroos joined Lumileds  (San Jose,’99) as EVP New Business Development,  leading a unique and diverse team that aggressively developed new breakthrough markets that helped Lumileds become known as the market and technology leader.   Menko co-founded Xicato in July 2007.

TERRALUX INC.     11:45pm – 2:00pm

Presenter:
Mark Verheyen
President & CEO
TerraLUX Inc.

TerraLUX has developed patented technology (9 patents issued and 26 pending) that enables simple integration of “plug and play” highly energy efficient LED light engines into lighting fixtures for both OEM and retrofit channels. Our LED light engines exhibit superior brightness and life and our thermal management technology eliminates the possibility of the LED chips in our light engines failing from overheating. Our products allow our customers to quickly implement extremely high quality solid-state lighting solutions without specific LED engineering capability, resulting in faster proliferation of this energy efficient and eco-friendly technology.

Mark Verheyen brings over 20 years of lighting industry experience to TerraLUX. Recent positions were SVP Business Development at Universal Lighting Technologies and President of Vossloh-Schwabe Inc. (Panasonic). Prior to this Mark held senior management positions in Asia and Europe at Vossloh-Schwabe and OSRAM.

COOLEDGE LIGHTING             2:00 pm – 2:15 pm

Presenter:
Calvin Wade Sheen
CEO
Cooledge Lighting

Cooledge Lighting is developing SSL solutions that will be integrated into long life luminaires for the $110B general lighting industry.  The Cooledge solution eliminates the costs of thermal management at both the package and fixture level of integration; reducing costs and simultaneously extending reliable lifetimes.  At the same time, Cooledge’s unique design frees the lighting fixture designer to develop unique forms for a high degree of light quality and pleasing aesthetics.   Using technology originating from the University of Illinois, and supported with an experienced SSL development team, Cooledge takes LED chips from producers and integrates them directly into white light producing light engines, integrating ballasts and controls into a system with easy to manage mechanical and electrical interfaces for the luminaire designer.

Calvin Wade Sheen has 20 years experience in the semiconductor, flat-panel display and solid-state lighting industries.  From 2009-2010 he worked as General Manager of AmberWave Systems Corp, engineered substrate efforts developing an alternative to sapphire for the LED based Solid State Lighting industry.  Following the successful sale of the LED substrate business unit, Dr. Sheen took a position at Cooledge Lighting, Inc.  He is currently acting CEO for Cooledge Lighting, Inc, a venture-backed Vancouver, BC based SSL startup company working on commercializing IP and concepts from the University of Illinois. 

Valuation and Exit Trends in Advanced Lighting and LEDs   

2:15pm - 2:45pm 

Presenter:
Dan Coyne
Managing Director
Canaccord Genuity Investment Banking Group

Mergers and acquisitions remain a relevant topic in the rapidly-evolving LED and LED lighting market market.  Large players and smaller enterprises are all concerned about access to capital, the future outlook, financial and operational stability, particularly as the trend towards “vertical integration” persists.  A senior investment banker at Canaccord, Dan Coyne, will elaborate on the valuation and consolidation trends in the LED and LED Lighting.

Dan Coyne serves as a Managing Director in Canaccord Genuity‘s Investment Banking Group.  Dan joined Adams Harkness (merged into Canaccord Adams in January 2006) in 1998.  During his investment banking career, Dan has participated in more than 150 transactions with an aggregate value exceeding $10.0 billion.  Within the Sustainability & CleanTech sector, Dan has completed transactions in advanced materials, solid-state lighting, instrumentation, green building products, recycling, solar and energy-efficiency services.  Prior to joining Adams Harkness, Dan was with Needham & Company. Dan graduated cum laude from Middlebury College with a B.A. in Economics. 

NUALIGHT LTD.          3:00 pm – 3:15 pm 

Presenter:
William Kelly
CEO
Nualight Ltd.

Nualight is a leading specialist in full store LED lighting solutions for food retail. Led by experts in LED technology and food retail merchandising, Nualight is a powerful partner for retailers who wish to increase the profitability of their food displays while delivering their sustainability agendas. Nualight's customers include leading retailers such as Tesco, Stop and Shop, Sainsburys, Migros, Tengelmann and many more.    

Liam Kelly is CEO and founder of Nualight, pioneering LED accent lighting for food retail in North America and Europe.  He previously founded CorkOpt Ltd., acquired by USA-based StockerYale , and co-founded Farran Technology, an imaging and communications systems manufacturer, acquired by the Smiths Group. A former academic, he has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California.

NANOTRONICS IMAGING            3:15 pm – 3:30 pm 

Presenter:
Michael Zigman
Chief Operating and Financial Officer
Nanotronics Imaging

Nanotronics Imaging develops, sells and services nSpec®, a fully automated optical inspection system for high resolution detection and analysis of defects in transparent and semi-transparent semiconductor wafers.  Nanotronics' core technology is a patented image reconstruction algorithm that helps detect and analyze nano-scale and micron-scale objects accurately, rapidly and inexpensively.
 

Michael Zigman is Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Nanotronics Imaging.  He has worked with technology companies for 20 years..  Prior to Nanotronics, Michael worked at WR Hambrecht, SoundView and Dean Witter.  He serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences.  He has a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

INVESTOR’S PANEL DISCUSSION

3:30pm – 4:30 pm 

Moderator:
Robert Walker
Partner
Sierra Ventures

Robert Walker is Partner at Sierra Ventures, a US$1.5B venture capital firm. He is a veteran of the solid-state lighting industry, where he was previously CEO of BridgeLux, a Senior Advisor to the Chinese government, pioneered Intematix's phosphor sales, authored reports for Strategies Unlimited, and chaired global conferences. He held a variety of sales and marketing positions at EMCORE (now Veeco MOCVD), where he ramped PacRim sales from $4M to >$100M from 1993 to 2001.

 
Panelists:

Marc van den Berg
Managing Director 
Vantage Point

Marc joined VantagePoint in 2006 from Venrock Partners. He has more than 25 years of industrial experience serving in executive roles in both technical and business capacities at small private companies as well as large public enterprises. His 10 years of experience in semiconductor capital equipment and materials at ATMI, Inc., and Microbar, Inc. significantly benefits VantagePoint solar and lighting technology portfolio companies. Previously, he held technical and operations positions in the Environmental Capital Equipment business at Purus Inc. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade developing advanced lasers as platforms for a broad array of industry applications at XMR Inc. Marc is a graduate of Santa Clara University (BSEE).

 
Ravi Viswanathan, PhD,
General Partner
NEA

Ravi  focuses on investments in information technology and energy technology. Present board memberships include  Boulder Wind Power, Deeya Energy, ISGN Technologies, One Block Off The Grid, Soraa, Stitcher, Skyline Solar, Suniva and ViXS and works closely with Availink, GlobalLogic, and OANDA. Prior investments include Tele Atlas (Euronext: TA, acquired by TomTom), Arcot (acquired by CA), Sanera (acquired by McData) and IM Logic (acquired by Symantec). Prior to joining NEA, Ravi worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he was co-head of the technology practice in their private equity group and led direct, fund, and secondary investments in the areas of information technology and life sciences. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ravi worked for McKinsey & Company and advised clients in the software, communications, and pharmaceutical sectors on strategy, acquisitions and new business building. Previously, Ravi worked for Raychem Corporation in the Corporate Technology Division where he focused on research and product development in semiconductors, liquid crystals, and other materials systems. Ravi received a master's degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he focused his research on materials science applications in molecular electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology. Prior to graduate school, Ravi received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
 
Dong Su Kim
Director
Samsung Venture Investment Co.
 
Dong-Su Kim, Ph.D. is a Director of Investment at Samsung Ventures America. He covers semiconductors, displays, renewable energy and "emerging" businesses, which includes healthcare and biotech. He has over thirteen years of investment, strategy, planning, and technology experience. Prior to joining Samsung Ventures, he was a director of Asia Evolution, an investment bank in Korea covering mid-market financing, private placement, and M&As. Before joining Asia Evolution he was a Senior Manager at Technology Strategy Office in Samsung Electronics. As the CTO's staff, he was responsible for strategic venture investments and technology alliance. He also worked in technology planning for Samsung's Telecom R&D center, responsible for discovering new research topics. Prior to that, he was a Technical Leader at Samsung Fiber Optics Business in charge of development of fiber optic components and also managed a technical sales team.
Dong-Su has a M.A. and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in Electrical Engineering, and a B.S. with honors from the California Institute of Technology in Applied Physics.
 

Dan Coyne
Managing Director
Canaccord Genuity Investment Banking Group

Dan Coyne serves as a Managing Director in Canaccord Genuity‘s Investment Banking Group.  Dan joined Adams Harkness (merged into Canaccord Adams in January 2006) in 1998.  During his investment banking career, Dan has participated in more than 150 transactions with an aggregate value exceeding $10.0 billion.  Within the Sustainability & CleanTech sector, Dan has completed transactions in advanced materials, solid-state lighting, instrumentation, green building products, recycling, solar and energy-efficiency services.  Prior to joining Adams Harkness, Dan was with Needham & Company. Dan graduated cum laude from Middlebury College with a B.A. in Economics.