Lists

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Light Raises $121m from SoftBank and Leica

Light Co. announces a Series D funding round of $121m, led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Leica Camera AG too participated in the financing.

The new funding will allow Light to expand its platform into security, robotic, automotive, aerial and industrial imaging applications. Later this year, the first mobile phone incorporating Light’s technology will be available to consumers around the world.

Light’s technology is a revelation, showing that several small, basic camera modules, combined with highly powerful software, can produce images that rival those produced by cameras costing and weighing orders of magnitude more. We’re just getting started. Having the support of SoftBank Vision Fund as a strategic investor means this technology will see more of the world sooner than we could have ever imagined,” said Dave Grannan, Light CEO and Co-founder.

With the rapid development of the computational photography, partnering with the innovators at Light ensures Leica to extend its tradition of excellence into the computational photography era,” said Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Leica Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

It is humbling to have the support of the most iconic camera brand in the world. We are excited by the overwhelming potential of the collaboration with Leica,” said Dr. Rajiv Laroia, Light CTO and Co-founder.

The SoftBank Vision Fund investment will be made in tranches, subject to certain conditions.

Light’s technologies, including its Lux Capacitor camera control chip and its Polar Fusion Engine for multi-image processing, are available for licensing for use in applications like smartphones, security, automotive, robotics, drones, and more.

2 comments:

  1. I am baffled as to how anyone is still willing to invest in this flop of a company, riddled by overpriced half-baked products that are irrelevant and are there for the sake of innovation when all the conventional products sold at the same time are better in almost every way.

    I am even more surprised by the people who buy their products.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The product is indeed half-baked, but I think the key phrase is that they are willing to license their IP. That is where the income is going to come from. That will dramatically cut down time to market for companies who did not start working on this early enough.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated to avoid spam and personal attacks.