Aledia raises €10m in first funding round

Amy King
03 April 2013

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Sofinnova Partners, Braemar Energy Ventures, Demeter Partners and CEA Investissement have participated in a €10m funding round for French LED developer Aledia.

The fresh funding will support the expansion of Aledia's market presence and product offering. The firm will finalise product development before beginning commercialisation in 2014.

Announced today, the financing round closed at the end of 2012.

Sofinnova and Demeter Partners led the investment, which originated through the former's existing relationship with entrepreneur Giorgio Anania, Aledia's co-founder, president and CEO. The VC duo then convinced the remaining two investors to come on board.

"Braemar Energy Ventures has done several LED investments in the States and China," Alesso Beverina, Sofinnova partner, told unquote". "So they know the market and environment. The last time that a US investor invested in a three-person company in France was about 20 years ago. So that was a very good sign that the technology that had been developed was strong," he added.

The team, technology and low cost of capex drew the VCs to the company, Beverina told unquote". "There has already been an explosion in the LED market," said he said. "The issue is the cost. But this new technology decreases that cost significantly," he added.

Company
Founded in 2011 and based in Grenoble, Aledia develops and manufactures light-emitting diodes (LED) that use gallium-nitride-on-silicon microwires. The firm aims to make LEDs available at substantially lower prices than are available today.

The company span out from CEA, the French government-funded tech research organisation. CEA Investissement, a participant in the funding round, is the organisation's investment arm.

People
Jiong Ma is a partner at Braemar. Alessio Beverina is a partner at Sofinnova and sits on the Aledia board. Sophie Paturle is a partner at Demeter. Frederic Martin is director of CEA Investissement.

Advisers
Equity - Proskauer Rose, Caroline Chabrerie, Christophe Baert (Legal); Kirkland & Ellis, Ross Allardice (Legal); Marks Clerk, Christian Nguyen Van Yen, Sophie Esselin (IP due diligence).
Company - Morgan Lewis, David Sebag, Olivier Edwards (Legal).