Organizers Aim to Create Funding Opportunities for Early-Stage Photonics Firms and Raise the Profile of Photonics as a Fast Growth Industry
BORDEAUX, France -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Invest in Photonics, a two-day international partnering convention will be held in Bordeaux, France, March 18 - 19, 2010. The only European-wide photonics-investor convention of its kind, Invest in Photonics 2010, will bring together the world's experts in photonics and leading investors from Europe and beyond to meet with emerging photonics companies seeking financial support. Upwards of 200 participants are expected to attend.
Invest in Photonics is an investment-networking and market development event. It facilitates meetings between entrepreneurs and executives of emerging companies in photonics and investors and analysts. These investors include venture capitalists, institutional investors and potential technology licensees from a wide range of high growth potential industries that use the latest photonics technology. Energy efficiency, the environment, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer technology all employ photonics technology in leading edge applications.
At the previous Invest in Photonics event in 2008, the organizers received some 50 international applications for funding. Of the applications reviewed, a selection committee chose 16 companies to present their projects to over 100 photonics specialists from all over the world. The projects aim to raise funds potentially reaching more than USD 129 million. Nearly one-third of the selected projects came from outside France and included applicants from Canada, Poland and Austria. In 2010, the organizers are anticipating an increase in the number of both applicants and projects selected for funding, as this is the second photonics investor convention and as the program is more international.
"Invest in Photonics is about creating investment opportunities in Europe for investors and emerging companies in photonics," says Bernard Couillaud, chairman of the Invest in Photonics organizing committee. "The field of Photonics is bursting with innovation and represents a global industry estimated to be worth USD 760 billion, according to the SPIE, an international society focusing on advanced light-based research. Invest in Photonics is proud to have many international partners join us for this second convention. In addition to many participants from the previous edition of Invest in Photonics, we look forward in 2010 to the international participation of a large number of companies seeking funding and to the interaction of these companies with a qualified panel of motivated investors".
The fact that applicants come not only from regional enterprises but from all over Europe also makes the Invest in Photonics event unique. Photonics plays a role in a huge range of applications. These include lasers, LEDs, photovoltaics, biophotonics, silicon photonics and other devices for optical communications and networking and computational imaging. The market size of photonics and photonics-enabled products is predicted to be a little over USD 1,200 billion in 2017 (source: SPIE presentation on "Photonics and Economics", May 26th, 2009).
The two-day Invest in Photonics event will consist of a program of keynote speakers and three presentation sessions. The presentation sessions are: Market Time bringing together international experts who will explain market trends and the outlook for the photonics industry; Business Time providing an opportunity for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to win investors over in a 10-minute speed meeting; and Innovation Time will showcase photonics products and the latest technology breakthroughs.
SME candidates looking for seed funding, development and later stage funding have until December 15, 2009 to submit projects. The organizers will announce the finalists in February 2010. Funding is used to further research and development, support sales and marketing and develop business networks of emerging photonics companies.
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, 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.
For more information, please visit: http://www.invest-in-photonics.com/
CONTACT:
Andrew Lloyd & Associates
Carol Leslie / Iva Vucinic
Tel: +44 1273 675 100
carol@ala.com / iva@ala.com