The global lighting market will approach $100 billion by 2010 and a decent-sized portion of that will come from industrial and outdoor lighting. That’s the market that Israeli startup Metrolight is tackling with its ballasts for high-intensity discharge lighting. Investors see the opportunity, as this morning the company announced it’s raised $3 million in a fourth round of funding — bringing the total amount it’s raised to $26 million — from Virgin Green Funds, Gemini Israel Funds and Israel Cleantech Ventures.
The company isn’t exactly a young startup — it was founded in 1996 and Randy Reid, Metrolight’s executive V-P of sales and marketing, told us in a previous interview that the company is at the stage where is sells thousands of ballasts per day. In an economy in which industrial and municipal customers are trying to save on their energy bills Metrolight’s ballast, which can reduce the energy consumption of a lamp by 60 percent and double its life, could prove even more popular.
The company is expecting significant growth and has brought on chip veteran Zvi Segal, whose appointment was also announced today, to lead its “growth phase.” Segal has two decades of experience at companies including Applied Materials.
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