Cork LED lighting start-up gets €50,000 investment

6 Mar 2012

Conor O' Connor of Enterprise Equity, pictured with Tony Morrissey, founder of Adaptive Lighting, the Cork start-up which has secured a €50,000 equity investment

Adaptive Lighting, a Cork-based developer of LED lighting systems, has secured a €50,000 equity investment from the AIB Seed Capital Fund.

The news was announced at the Genesis Showcase Award Ceremony in the Rubicon Centre at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) yesterday at the start of the institute’s Innovation Week.

Adaptive Lighting was also named the Enterprise Equity Genesis Emerging Business of the Year for 2012.

The AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is co-managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital, has made the equity investment offer in the start-up, which was set up by Tony Morrissey in 2008.

Last year’s winner, ePub Direct, secured a €1.3m investment shortly after emerging from the Genesis programme. The Digital publishing company ePub Direct now plans to expand its Cork-based operation and is aiming to create about 30 new jobs over the next two years, according to Cork Chamber.

But back to Adaptive Lighting, which is developing lighting systems by deploying LED technology combined with enhanced optical, thermal and electronic systems.

The company’s key market areas are in the life sciences and high volume medical device manufacturing industries.

Morrissey said that the offer of investment would allow the company to exploit opportunities in these sectors, allowing it to build a new management team.
Rubicon Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, which is hosting Innovation Week this week

Rubicon Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, which is hosting Innovation Week this week

This year, 17 new companies completed the Genesis programme. The start-ups came from a plethora of industries, including software, gaming, micro-electronics, new forms of media, food, medical devices and internationally traded services.

Previous businesses that participated in the programme include Abtran, Aspiracon, Cully & Sully, Comnitel (acquired by IBM in 2007), Ferfics, MP Stor, Radisen Diagnostics, Treemetrics, Weddingdates.ie and Wavebreak Media.

To date the Genesis programme has supported almost 220 entrepreneurs and teams in starting their businesses, who collectively have raised over €102m in investment and created employment for around 2,000 people.

Genesis is now accepting applications from start-up entrepreneurs for its 2012/2013 programme.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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