D.Light, a startup officially announced its products in June 2008.
The company is in the process of moving its offices to Shenzhen, China, from Mountain View, Calif., to manufacture three LED and solar-based lighting products that cost just $10 to $30 and are meant to replace kerosene lanterns.
The Nova will sell for approximately $12 to $25 and one hour of solar charge can provide one hour of LED light on the medium setting.
In many regions of India and Africa that are not connected to the electric power grid, kerosene lanterns provide much of the lighting. But kerosene lanterns can be unsafe and cause respiratory problems; they’re also generally pretty dim and are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
D.Light President Ned Tozun tells us that, while no one would argue replacing kerosene lanterns is a bad idea, technologies such as LEDs and solar panels have just started to become cost-effective replacements.
D.Light was founded by Tozun and his business partners at Stanford with backing from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Gray Matters Capital and Michael Marks (the Chairman of Flextronics). D.Light is working with Seoul Semiconductor for its LEDs and plans to produce in “the millions of units” and strongly focused on getting its goods to the developing world first.
The company is in the process of moving its offices to Shenzhen, China, from Mountain View, Calif., to manufacture three LED and solar-based lighting products that cost just $10 to $30 and are meant to replace kerosene lanterns.
The Nova will sell for approximately $12 to $25 and one hour of solar charge can provide one hour of LED light on the medium setting.
In many regions of India and Africa that are not connected to the electric power grid, kerosene lanterns provide much of the lighting. But kerosene lanterns can be unsafe and cause respiratory problems; they’re also generally pretty dim and are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
D.Light President Ned Tozun tells us that, while no one would argue replacing kerosene lanterns is a bad idea, technologies such as LEDs and solar panels have just started to become cost-effective replacements.
D.Light was founded by Tozun and his business partners at Stanford with backing from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Gray Matters Capital and Michael Marks (the Chairman of Flextronics). D.Light is working with Seoul Semiconductor for its LEDs and plans to produce in “the millions of units” and strongly focused on getting its goods to the developing world first.
