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12/05/2005
Stonehenge leads $1.3 million Series A round for Lumetrics
Optical Measuring Device Maker Lumetrics Sees $1.3M In Series A
By Jonathan Matsey
12/5/2005
Lumetrics Inc., a maker of optics devices to measure the thickness of film and medical products, said that it has raised $1.34 million in Series A financing.
Stonehenge Capital Co. led the round, providing $300,000. Other investors include the Small Business Technology Investment Fund, managed by the Empire State Development Corp., which contributed $200,000, and the Rochester Angel Network, which contributed the remainder.
Chief Executive John Hart of Lumetrics said that the round included $500,000 in bridge loans from the Rochester Angel Network. Following the investment, the company has a post-money valuation of about $4.4 million, Hart said.
Lumetrics' devices use light to measure the thickness of an item without contact. Currently, the company is pursuing three markets: precision optics, ophthalmic devices and medical products.
Founded in 2003 with technology licensed from Eastman Kodak Co., Lumetrics is in an enviable position for a two-and-a-half year old startup. The company has been generating revenue for the past year, said spokesman Steve Heveron-Smith, and has signed several big name customers, including Guidant Corp. and Corning Inc.
Lumetrics developed this with very little financing. Hart said that the company received $350,000 in seed financing from the University Technology Seed Fund managed by the Trillium Group.
The company spent its first year of operations fine tuning the IP it inherited from Eastman Kodak, "making it robust for the marketplace," Hart said. While the original version required hours to days to generate specific results, he said that the current offering gives real-time readings of a material's thickness.
Lumetrics' Series A financing will be used to increase the company's staff - currently five - by 11 over the next year. Those people will be crucial to helping the company to expand into further industrial and geographical markets.
After talking to representatives at several companies at an industry conference, Hart said that the product was well received by European companies. "We got some interest from systems integrators and manufacturers," he said. With the financing, he said he hopes the company hopes to be selling into Europe in the first half of next year.
The financing will also help the company to pursue additional industries, Hart said. When the company launched, he said that it identified over 10 potential market segments, but concentrated on precision optics, ophthalmic devices, and medical products because those markets had the greatest need for a product like Lumetric was offering.
Other markets may have a need, Hart said, but their price points would require a less expensive product, which takes time to design.
The Series A funds will help the company to pursue markets like producers of multi-layer plastic wrap, such as food and pharmaceutical covers. The technology could also be employed in optical coherence tomography, a type of non-invasive imaging of the eye, and a similar technology to look at teeth. "You can use a non-contact measurement to look at cross-sections of the eye without risking damage to the eye," he said.
Brian Model, vice president at Stonehenge, will take a seat on Lumetrics' board as a result of the financing.
Model said that his firm - based in Baton Rouge, La., although Model works out of a New York office - has had its eye on Lumetrics for several years through contacts at its West Henrietta, N.Y. technology center. "We've been tracking the company for about one or two years now through relations at the Lenox Technology Center," he said.
The company has no plans to move, Model said, citing the greater Rochester metropolitan area in upstate New York as "the center of the optics universe."
News of the financing was first reported in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
http://www.lumetrics.net
By Jonathan Matsey
12/5/2005
Lumetrics Inc., a maker of optics devices to measure the thickness of film and medical products, said that it has raised $1.34 million in Series A financing.
Stonehenge Capital Co. led the round, providing $300,000. Other investors include the Small Business Technology Investment Fund, managed by the Empire State Development Corp., which contributed $200,000, and the Rochester Angel Network, which contributed the remainder.
Chief Executive John Hart of Lumetrics said that the round included $500,000 in bridge loans from the Rochester Angel Network. Following the investment, the company has a post-money valuation of about $4.4 million, Hart said.
Lumetrics' devices use light to measure the thickness of an item without contact. Currently, the company is pursuing three markets: precision optics, ophthalmic devices and medical products.
Founded in 2003 with technology licensed from Eastman Kodak Co., Lumetrics is in an enviable position for a two-and-a-half year old startup. The company has been generating revenue for the past year, said spokesman Steve Heveron-Smith, and has signed several big name customers, including Guidant Corp. and Corning Inc.
Lumetrics developed this with very little financing. Hart said that the company received $350,000 in seed financing from the University Technology Seed Fund managed by the Trillium Group.
The company spent its first year of operations fine tuning the IP it inherited from Eastman Kodak, "making it robust for the marketplace," Hart said. While the original version required hours to days to generate specific results, he said that the current offering gives real-time readings of a material's thickness.
Lumetrics' Series A financing will be used to increase the company's staff - currently five - by 11 over the next year. Those people will be crucial to helping the company to expand into further industrial and geographical markets.
After talking to representatives at several companies at an industry conference, Hart said that the product was well received by European companies. "We got some interest from systems integrators and manufacturers," he said. With the financing, he said he hopes the company hopes to be selling into Europe in the first half of next year.
The financing will also help the company to pursue additional industries, Hart said. When the company launched, he said that it identified over 10 potential market segments, but concentrated on precision optics, ophthalmic devices, and medical products because those markets had the greatest need for a product like Lumetric was offering.
Other markets may have a need, Hart said, but their price points would require a less expensive product, which takes time to design.
The Series A funds will help the company to pursue markets like producers of multi-layer plastic wrap, such as food and pharmaceutical covers. The technology could also be employed in optical coherence tomography, a type of non-invasive imaging of the eye, and a similar technology to look at teeth. "You can use a non-contact measurement to look at cross-sections of the eye without risking damage to the eye," he said.
Brian Model, vice president at Stonehenge, will take a seat on Lumetrics' board as a result of the financing.
Model said that his firm - based in Baton Rouge, La., although Model works out of a New York office - has had its eye on Lumetrics for several years through contacts at its West Henrietta, N.Y. technology center. "We've been tracking the company for about one or two years now through relations at the Lenox Technology Center," he said.
The company has no plans to move, Model said, citing the greater Rochester metropolitan area in upstate New York as "the center of the optics universe."
News of the financing was first reported in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
http://www.lumetrics.net
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