Lightscape Materials secures $3m series A funding

Lightscape Materials Inc., a spin-off from Sarnoff Corporation that develops LED phosphors, has secured $3 million in Series A funding. The funding from Wisepower Co. Ltd and Foosung HDS Co. Ltd will be used to develop and sell phosphors for LED lighting and a variety of other applications.

Lightscape Materials describes itself as a developer and supplier of novel, high-performance photo-luminescent phosphors designed for use by the LED industry to enable new lighting products. It says that it will provide the industry with a variety of phosphor materials options to expand the adoption of LEDs into hundreds of application-specific LED products.

Wisepower and Foosung HDS join Itochu Corporation, an early stage investor and distributor in Asia for Lightscape Materials.

“Lightscape Materials will bring a business focus and technical expertise to the development of LED phosphor materials to meet the emerging needs of the LED industry, enabling LED packagers and luminaire makers to better customize LED lighting solutions,” said Gerard Frederickson, CEO and one of the founders of Lightscape Materials. “Wisepower and Foosung share our vision of contributing to the growth of the SSL industry and will be strategic partners going forward.”

“The potential for new LED-based lighting products is tremendous and cuts across many traditional industries including display and general lighting,” said Gi Ho Park, Wisepower’s CEO. “With Lightscape’s heritage rooted in Sarnoff Corporation’s world-class R&D, we’re confident the company can take advantage of this amazing opportunity.”

Lightscape Materials says that it will “leverage 60 years of expertise from the first color TV phosphors developed under RCA to diverse applications such as long persistence, EL, PDP, bio-medical, security, and LED applications.”