Light Raises $9.7MM Series A to Reimagine Photography

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Light (http://light.co/) has raised a $9.7MM Series A to reimagine photography.

Light was co-founded by Dave Grannan (CEO) and Rajiv Laroia (CTO).

Prior to Light, Grannan was CEO of Vlingo, the first natural language speech recognition service for mobile phones. Vlingo provided speech recognition for the first Siri app and powered Samsung's S-Voice product. Nuance Communications acquired Vlingo in 2012. Laroia previously founded and served as CTO of Flarion Technologies, which developed the base technology for LTE. Flarion was acquired by Qualcomm in 2006.

The investment was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and CRV. Other investors include Qualcomm Executive Chairman Dr. Paul E. Jacobs and GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO (and former Motorola Mobility Chairman and CEO), Sanjay Jha. Jacobs joins Light's Board of Directors, alongside Grannan, Laroia, BVP's Bob Goodman and CRV's Bruce Sachs.

Joining the Light executive team are Harpuneet Singh, SVP Design and Manufacturing, and Bradley Lautenbach, VP Marketing. Singh was previously CTO at DigitalOptics Corporation and SVP at Flextronics International. At Flextronics, Singh launched the camera module business, helping propel the company to a $1B revenue run rate. Lautenbach is a veteran of ABC and Disney, and has also spent time at Bonobos and Zuckerberg Media. At Disney, Lautenbach created digital media and mobile consumer products, and more recently has been focused on brand development.

Further financial terms of the round have not been disclosed.

About Light
Light (http://light.co) is a team of creative technologists on a mission to reimagine the art and science of photography.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) invests in early-stage, hyper-growth startups, partnering closely with entrepreneurs to build durable businesses. BVP is a global firm with offices in Menlo Park, Cambridge, New York, Mumbai, Bangalore, Herzliya and Sao Paolo. With $4 billion under management, BVP invests anywhere from $100,000 to $75 million in innovative companies like LinkedIn, Yelp, Skype, CornerstoneOnDemand, Pinterest, Box and Twilio. Over 100 BVP companies have gone public. Learn more at bvp.com and follow us on Twitter @BessemerVP

About CRV
Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures (CRV) has been a leading investor in early-stage technology companies for more than forty years. CRV's partners, all of whom are experienced entrepreneurs and operators, are focused on helping to build world-changing companies that create tremendous value. CRV has recently led early investments in some of the biggest consumer and enterprise tech companies including Twitter, Yammer, Zendesk, and more. CRV has offices in Cambridge, Mass. and Menlo Park, Calif. For more information, please visit www.crv.com.

About Dr. Paul E. Jacobs
Dr. Jacobs is executive chairman of Qualcomm Incorporated, where he is responsible for helping guide the development of new technologies and Qualcomm's long-term opportunities. A leader in the field of mobile communications for more than 25 years and a key architect of Qualcomm's strategic vision, Dr. Jacobs spearheaded Qualcomm's efforts to develop and commercialize mobile technology breakthroughs that have significantly contributed to the growth of both the Company and the industry. Important developments which began under Dr. Jacobs include: the first smartphone based on Palm OS®; inclusion of GPS capabilities in mobile phones (which led to the acquisition of SnapTrack and Qualcomm's development of gpsOne position-location technology); the Brew™ system, which enables over-the-air downloading of applications; QChat™, a Voice over IP, push-to-talk system; Qualcomm® Mirasol™, a novel reflective display technology; and the Qualcomm® Toq™smartwatch. Dr. Jacobs received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Qualcomm, Brew, and QChat are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Toq is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Mirasol is a trademark of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Brew and QChat are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Qualcomm Mirasol is a product of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. The Qualcomm Toq smartwatch is a product of Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc.

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SOURCE Light