The Spanish startup Ledmotive closed a financing round of €1.85 million on 14 December. We are talking about a technology company specialising in the development of natural or artificial lighting.

In a final section we analyse the sales of companies most relevant in the sector at international level.

Spanish startup Ledmotive

Ledmotive, with headquarters in Sant Adrià del Besos, Catalonia, is a company with proprietary technology which allows you to create, copy, design and share any type of natural or artificial lighting. It is a spin-off from IREC (Instituto de Investigación de Energía de Cataluña) and its clients include the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, Repsol and the National Gallery in London.

They currently have 14 employees on staff, where Meritxell Carreras is the CEO and Josep Carreras is the CTO. In its last results it obtained a operating income of 50,000 euros and a Negative EBITDA of 100,000 eurosapproximately.

Ledmotive's patented technology finds numerous applications, such as enhancing the mood, comfort and recovery of patients in hospitals, improving the performance of students in schools or increasing the comfort and productivity of employees in offices, among others.

1.85 million financing round

About a month ago, more precisely on 14 December 2018, it was confirmed the financing round received by Ledmotive. The total amount of the investment was 1.85 million y fue liderada por Victoria Venture Capital, aunque también participaron la sociedad pública catalana Avançsa, la Comisión Europea, a través del programa H2020-SME-Instrument (Fase 2) y del programa NEOTEC del CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial).

Victoria Venture Capital is a venture capital company que invierte en tecnologías disruptivas que solucionan problemas globales en ámbitos industriales y energéticos. A parte de la ronda de Ledmotive, la sociedad también ha participado en inversiones de Hydrokemos, Oxolutia y Nnergix.

The main use of this round was for anchoring the technology of Ledmotive, scaling up their production and enhancing marketing and internationalisation (initially in the health sector) with the aim of improving people's quality of life, well-being and comfort.

International sales of companies in the sector

In this section, we are going to present the most relevant sales operations in the technological lighting sector.

1. Dialog Semiconductor

Dialog is a UK-based manufacturer of semiconductor-based system solutions. The company creates energy-efficient, highly integrated and mixed signal integrated circuits for mobile, IoT and solid-state lighting applications.

On October 11 2018 Apple paid $300 million in cash to buy a piece of Dialog, which it has been working with since the first iPhone. Apple has been making a considerable effort to build faster and more efficient chips that can help differentiate its hardware from the rest of the consumer electronics pack, and with this acquisition it took what was probably the biggest step in that strategy.

In addition to the $300 million deal, Apple also paid another $300 million to buy out the remaining part of Dialog's business, making it a 600 million agreement in total.

While Dialog describes the sale as a transfer of assets and licenses, for Apple it was the largest sale in the world. buy in terms of people: 300 people joined Apple, or approximately 16% of Dialog's total workforce.

2. Flashnet

Founded in 2005, Flashnet is a technology company that integrates the latest IT, energy and telecommunications technologies into hardware and software solutions, creating and implementing smart systems for smarter cities and better infrastructure. Thanks to its solutions many cities, both large and small, already enjoy all the benefits of smart street lighting networks.

On 4 July 2018, it was announced that the sale of the 60% of the company to Engie, a global energy and services group.

With this acquisition, Engie strengthens its position in the smart street lighting market, with the ambition to become a world leader in the public lighting and Smart Cities sector.

3. Enlighted

Enlighted (Sunnyvale, California) es una empresa que ofrece smart energy solutions for commercial buildings, using a sensor and analytics platform. To date, its sensors have been installed in more than 70,000 square feet and have been deployed in the workplaces of companies such as Fortune 1000, AT&T or Oracle.

It also offers lighting control systemsconsisting of a network of LED lights and patented sensors connected together. Data is collected 65 times per second to detect environmental and occupancy changes and take action on lighting needs in real time.

Siemens Building Technologies carried out the operation of purchase of the company on 23 May 2018 for an amount that was not disclosed by either party.

Building Technologies offers fire protection, security and life safety, as well as building automation, HVAC and energy management.

«Con Siemens como socio global, ambos aceleraremos la innovación y la adopción en el mercado de nuestras tecnologías de construcción inteligente a escala internacional», dijo Joe Costello, CEO de Enlighted.

4. Organic Response

El 3 de abril de 2017 conocimos la venta de Organic Response, Australian supplier of intelligent lighting control solutions, a Fagerhult. La venta estaba formada por algunos activos de Organic Response y Organic Response Investors y su IPR.

Organic Response uses distributed intelligence to control arrays of electrical devices serving building occupants, while Fagerhult develops, manufactures and markets innovative, energy-efficient lighting solutions for professional indoor, retail and outdoor environments.

«Hemos adquirido el IPR y los activos de Organic Response debido al gran valor y potencial que vemos en sus productos de control de iluminación y tecnología de análisis para los negocios de nuestro Grupo. Los controles de iluminación y análisis de datos son una parte increasingly important of the lighting solutions space," said Johan Hjertonsson, CEO of Fagerhult.