A Toronto start-up hopes it has turned the fluorescent lighting controller market on its head
And it boasts that with potential contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars under negotiation with European utilities, it has its sites set on an IPO inside one and half years.
Cavet Technologies says the low-cost chip-based controller can save 30 percent of enrgy costs
Cavet Technologies believes it has a better way of reducing lighting energy demand. The company on Monday launched its LumiSmart controller , a $2,000 product it says can be installed in 40 minutes. Older controllers are larger and more cumbersome to deploy.
With this greater simplicity, “we are going to piss them off,” says CEO Albert Behr, referring to competitors such as Lutron, Panasonic, Osram and Leviton.
Cavet says the product take a novel approach to power reduction. It inserts on and off pulses in the electrical stream, but never enough to turn off a light, only enough to replace some of the electrons flowing down the wire. The result can be 30 percent energy savings. At the heart of the system is a custom ASIC semiconductor managing the current.
The 12-percon company struck a deal with contract manufacturer Celestica, which made a strategic investment in the company in exchange for exclusive manufacturing rights. No money changed hands.
Behr says Monday’s launch in 15 countries is a line in the sand. “We are bound and determined to be the worldwide standard. It’s one product for all markets.”
Obviously, larger, more powerful rivals will have a different explanation. It will be interesting to see whether big words from Cavet translate into big deeds.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
