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Outcome positive for Invest in Photonics 2010

3rd May, 2010, International actions.

From 25th to 26th March, 2010

Event participation went up to 25 per cent in Bordeaux, this year. Energy efficiency, personalized healthcare and ?green? products seen as major drivers for photonics industry growth. 2010 investment turning more hopeful, but growth pattern uncertain, industry insiders say.
Invest in Photonics®, a two-day international partnering convention that brings together the world's experts in photonics and leading investors from Europe and beyond to meet with emerging photonics companies seeking financial support, announced that the participation in the event rose up to 25 per cent, with new attendees coming from the wider European and North American photonics and communities.

?We are very pleased with the results of the second edition of Invest in Photonics. Participation exceeded the last event, several factors are stimulating industry growth, and the 12 selected photonics projects presented were of high quality and well received,? said Bernard Couillaud, chairman of the Invest in Photonics organizing committee. ?On the financial side, we see that investors are cautiously optimistic. In 2010, there are signs of a gradual increase in investment levels and exit transactions. While we are not out of the woods yet, we are clearly in better shape than in 2008.?

The 2010 Invest in Photonics welcomed 125 participants, a little more than in 2008. C-level directors (CEOs, CFOs, CSOs etc) from small businesses and institutions made up 64 per cent of the visitors, with 42 per cent of attendees coming from the US, Canada and European countries outside France.

The 12 companies selected for the special funding session were seeking potential funding in the range of EUR 30 million. They presented projects covering a wide range of market segments. These included optical transport, medical equipment, and intelligent lighting, an area where the total market for LED, for example, was USD 5.9 billion in 2009. Event organizers awarded the prize for the ?Best of the Convention? to LED Linear, a maker of scalable interior and exterior lighting systems using LED technology, based in Germany, for the originality of its product concept and its relevance to the market.

Presentations from 11 of the world's leading specialists in photonics, as well as those of the 5 investment panel members, all confirmed the international nature of the industry, and that it offers strong growth potential from USD 356 billion in 2008 to USD 493 billion in 2010, according to Michael Lebby, president and CEO of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association.
Above all, the presentations showed that photonics is an enabling technology that is multi-disciplinary and hence it is extremely pervasive, spanning as it does energy & the environment, life sciences & healthcare, defense & security, materials and basic research. ?Photonics enables many things and is a part of our lifestyle,? announced Michael Lebby in his presentation on Green Photonics™: Will it Change Our Lives Over the Next Decade? ?Photonics will be integrated – just like ICs 50 years ago - and drive new product designs. Photonics is green and will enable new technologies and products that will also be green.?

According to Couillaud, the financial community is becoming more educated about photonics, its diversity and applications that go far beyond telecom, as well as its growth potential in a diverse range of markets. ?Photonics investment shrank in 2009, similar to other industries. But it is coming back, gradually, although the pace is uncertain. Our goals for the next Invest in Photonics will be to grow the number of industrial company participants and make the industry more understandable to non-specialists and consumers.?

Invest in Photonics is an investment-networking and market development event that facilitates meetings between entrepreneurs and executives of emerging companies in photonics and investors and analysts. The high growth industries that were represented at the event: energy efficiency, the environment, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer technology, all employ photonics technology in leading edge applications.

About Invest in Photonics®
Invest in Photonics® was created in 2008 by the ALPhA technology cluster (Aquitaine Laser Photonique et Applications), CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission and the largest government-funded technological research organization in France) and the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of facilitating meetings between investors and emerging companies in photonics, addressing business issues in photonics, as well as increasing the visibility of the industry.

Several international organizations also actively support Invest in Photonics, in particular EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium, Photonics21, an association of industrial enterprises and other stakeholders in the field of photonics in Europe, AFOP, a French optics and photonics association, CNOP, the French national committee in optics and photonics, the UK Photonics Knowledge and Technology Network (KTN), Optec-Net in Germany, the Photonics Cluster Netherlands (PCN), Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO) in Spain, and the Réseau Photonique du Québec, Canada. Invest in Photonics also receives financial support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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