Date Announced: 15 Oct 2010 Fremont, CA – Redwood Systems, a pioneer of network-based lighting power and control systems, today announced it has secured $15 million in Series B financing to enhance its innovative commercial lighting technology, grow its footprint in key markets, establish strategic sales channels and expand into international markets. Index Ventures led the investment round, and existing funders Battery Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners reaffirmed their commitment to Redwood through their participation. Neil Rimer, co-founder and partner of Index Ventures, will join Redwood’s board of directors.“With a series of strategic project wins, Redwood is being embraced by customers large and small, across a variety of market sectors,” said Dave Leonard, CEO and co-founder of Redwood Systems. “This strategic investment will help us both build on our early success and continue to develop the world’s first unified power and control lighting system.”According to Philips, the global lighting market exceeds $75 billion per year, with 20 percent of this in the United States alone. LEDs, which Redwood’s platform was specifically designed to optimize, are also projected to rapidly outpace other lighting types, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the total market by 2020. Redwood’s innovative network-based lighting technology, coupled with LEDs, has already been selected for a number of leading commercial locations, including Class-A commercial office buildings, schools and universities, and leading data centers across the United States.“We see the potential of the Redwood platform to fundamentally alter the energy equation in lighting for commercial buildings,” said Index Ventures’ Rimer. “As an investment firm that prides itself on identifying breakthrough innovations in major markets, we believe that Redwood’s elegant approach to powering and controlling lighting over a single cable will advance smart lighting and enable smart buildings.”“We use Redwood technology to provide LED lighting control in a section of our Building Efficiency headquarters,” said Andrew DeGuire, vice president of strategy, Building Efficiency, Johnson Controls. “The system has delivered more efficient communication between the control server and our LED lighting fixtures, and works very well for managing performance in an enterprise environment. We've seen a significant reduction in energy where we have deployed this system.”LED Light Fixtures—Coupled with Building Controls—Achieve Significant Energy SavingsWhile LED luminaires can substantially reduce the typical lighting energy profile, there is an increasing understanding among professionals in energy-efficient building design and operation that significant gains can only be achieved by coupling LEDs with intelligent dimming, scheduling, occupancy, and daylighting controls.Redwood’s first-of-its kind technology addresses this challenge by combining power and control over the same low-voltage network. This allows for much greater accuracy and responsiveness, and further reduces the energy load while providing greater insight into the way the building is operating in real time.About Redwood Systems Redwood Systems is pioneering an entirely new way to power, communicate, and control lights that will bring unprecedented energy savings and improve building performance. By combining three typically discrete systems (power, communications, sensors) into one network-based system, Redwood’s platform will make smart buildings vastly simpler, easier, and less expensive to own and operate. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. For more information, visit http://www.redwoodsystems.com/.About Index VenturesIndex Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology, Clean Technology, and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The company has offices in Geneva, London, and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed through growth stage companies. Current portfolio companies include AlertMe, ASOS, Betfair, LeHigh and Lovefilm and exits include Last.fm, MySQL, Playfish and Skype. For more information, please go to hhttp://www.indexventures.com or www.twitter.com/indexventures.About Battery VenturesSince 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from start-up and expansion financing, to growth equity and buyouts. Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including: Airespace (acquired by Cisco), Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), BladeLogic (acquired by BMC Software), Insitu (acquired by Boeing), LIFFE (acquired by EuroNext), MaxLinear (NYSE: MXL) and Neoteris (acquired by Netscreen).Battery’s current portfolio includes emerging leaders in cleantech such as: Greenbytes (high performance, energy-efficient data storage solutions), Luminus Devices (solid state lighting), Modular Wind Energy (proprietary blade design for wind turbines), Qteros (advanced biofuels), Redwood Systems (energy control systems for green buildings), SolarBridge Technologies (reliable microinverters for integrated AC PV solar) and Viridity Software (energy resource management for data center optimization).
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