Intematix Files IPO Registration in Solid-State Lighting Market

Intematix phosphors help LED lighting perform better. Perhaps they’ll also help the greentech IPO market perform better.

Eric Wesoff August 15, 2012

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

In August of 2010, we put Intematix on a short list of potential greentech IPO candidates. We interviewed the firm's new CEO at that time.

It took a while, but Intematix just announced that that it is planning "to conduct a registered initial public offering of its common stock," according to a statement. The offering could occur after the SEC reviews the firm's draft registration statement, "subject to market and other conditions." Note that this paperwork was filed under the new JOBS act, so details on the filing are confidential.

Intematix produces a product that makes LEDs work. The firm's phosphor materials enable LEDs for general illumination to achieve better quality light and efficiency. Reliable sources indicate that the company is generating revenue in the "tens of millions." What's more, the LED lighting market seems to be poised at an interesting tipping point.

Last year we spoke with the CEO Mark Swoboda at the company's U.S. headquarters in Fremont, California. Intematix customers include the big LED vendors, as well as TV manufacturers. The firm is looking at other markets like signage where phosphors make signs glow like neon with lower energy usage. The firm also sells lighting assemblies and luminaires, but more as technology demonstrators -- its core business remains phosphors. In the CEO's words, "The DNA of the company is all about phosphor materials."

Perhaps it's the lighting market that can breathe some life into the greentech IPO space. Another company that enables the pivot to solid-state lighting, iWatt, has also filed for its IPO, and we reported on them in June. We've covered the imminent switch from incandescent lighting to solid-state lighting in detail, as well as the VC funding for firms such as Lighting Science Group and Bridgelux.

Recent greentech IPOs from the likes of BrightSource, Luca, and Enerkem have either been withdrawn because of "market conditions," or, as in the case of Enphase, have been priced below expectations with tepid stock performance -- despite Enphase's strong fundamentals.

Intematix has taken VC funding in the past from DFJ, Crosslink and East Gate, but more recent funding has come from strategics including Samsung and Sumitomo.

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