China Tech Innovator With 200 Patents For LEDs Gains $80 Million More To Break Through

Silicon Dragon tours LatticePower lab in Nanchang

A lot of people are skeptical about China’s potential for technology innovation. But one Chinese company I wrote about in my book Silicon Dragon in 2008, and have been tracking since then, has certainly been setting some new standards in cleantech — and ability to raise venture investment.

LatticePower Corp., which grew out of research by physics professor Jiang Fengyi at his Nanchang University lab in China, claims to be the first company to commercially develop high-quality, reliable and affordable LED lighting — a major step in a goal of replacing conventional light bulbs and fixtures with energy-savings LED lights.

The China-based company is no lightweight. It’s filed for more than 200 global patents and attracted financial support from the World Bank and several leading venture capital investors.

LatticePower has been championed by its lead investor, Sonny Wu of Chinese-US venture firm GSR Ventures. He was tipped off to this ground-breaking technology research happening in Nanchang by a senior official of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Information Industry inn 2000, then sent a team there to investigate further and first backed the company in 2005.

Now, fast forward, and LatticePower has just lured in $80 million in financing to ramp up R&D and manufacturing in the U.S., build research teams in Korea and Taiwan, expand production in China, and finance sales growth globally.
Keep reading post at Forbes, China LED innovator.

Forbes link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccafannin/2014/07/01/china-tech-innovator-with-200-patents-for-leds-gains-80-million-more-to-break-through/