Portfolio News
Nuventix's bright idea may boost profits
Austin Business Journal
Laura Hipp
4 April 2008
Nuventix Inc. thinks it has the next bright idea for lightbulbs.
After three years of product design, President and CEO Jim Balthazar has shifted the Austin startup into a sales and manufacturing phase - and a much larger office.
More than 80 customers are testing Nuventix SynJet device - a quieter and cheaper way to cool LED lights and computer chips.
"It's such a revolutionary technology. [Customers are] figuring out how to implement it into their product designs," Balthazar says.
Nuvenitx has raised a total of $15 million and expects to close its latest round in a few months with another $1.5 million.
"We're in the final throes of a couple of VC firms vying for that," he says.
This year, Nuventix plans to go from 29 workers to more than 40 people.
The company will have more elbow room this month in its new 21,000-square-foot office at the former Silicon Labs Inc. site on Boston Lane in Southwest Austin.
Marc Vanderslice, vice president of HPI Corporate Services, represented Nuventix in the deal.
The company was in roughly 8,500 square feet before the move.
Nuventix hired Jeff Kelley, former vice president and founder of Coldwatt Inc., as a vice president of sales in January. The company has a sales manager in France and plans to hire an engineer in Europe soon.
Its product is aimed at several industries, from automotive electronics to computers. The first target in Nuventix's crosshairs is the LED light manufacturing market.
The industry is moving from providing the small red indicator lights used in electronics or stoplights to products that can illuminate an entire room.
LED technology is touted as consuming less energy and being environmentally safe. While the bulbs lack the traces of mercury found in today's compact fluorescent bulbs, they also produce too much heat.
"That's been the big knock on LED," he says.
Rather than relying on the constant whir of small fans for cooling, Balthazar says industry can use his device, which is quieter and uses little energy.
The SynJet pushes air using a diaphragm that moves inside a plastic housing. The company claims it is 50 percent more effective at removing heat than a fan.
However, don't expect to see LED lights on store shelves soon. Analysts predict the market won't be ripe until 2010.
Cooling the bulbs, the size of the lights and the high cost have limited the push of LED lights into the general illumination segment, says Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst at research firm iSuppli Corp. of El Segundo, Calif.
Several vendors are working with manufacturers to bring the bulb temperatures down, he says.
"That's the Holy Grail," Rebello says.
iSuppli projects the LED market will grow 75 percent to $12.3 billion by 2012.
Rebello says prices should drop from the current $100 per bulb to about $10 each in 2010.
At that point large businesses, such as hotel chains, will begin purchases and the lights will be successful, he estimates.
LED lights have 10 percent the energy consumption of today's bulbs and can last 10 to 15 years, he says.
Balthazar says lighting companies are testing the product to fit in their design plans. He predicts the company's revenue will come from lighting companies in the beginning.
He declined to offer specific revenue projections.
"We're just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg of what solid state lighting can bring," Balthazar says.
Computer makers are working on designs to place the SynJet in computers and servers.
Balthazar does not expect those products to hit the market for another two years.
"It's going to be a fun year for us," he says.
