LED Engin, Inc., a San Jose, California-based LED company specializing in high-lumen-density LED lighting components and optics, has completed its series E financing round. The financing will be used to broaden the LED Engin product portfolio, increase manufacturing capacity and to expand its worldwide sales and marketing network.

The round was led by technology fund GVT Fund, joined by co-investor MSIVC, existing investors WK Technology Fund, Partech International, NGP Energy Technology Partners, and independent investor and chairman, Keh-Shew Lu. "The latest round of funding provides LED Engin with the financial resources it needs to accelerate growth" said David Tahmassebi, President and CEO of LED Engin. "The addition of GVT Fund to our existing funding partners brings increased and well- respected energy-focused funds with deep connections and experience in Asia markets."

At the recent Light+Building tradeshow, LED Engin demonstrated ViviLux, a high-efficiency, high-color-quality LED product that maximizes targeted intensity (lux-on-target performance), and LuxiTune, an intelligent single LED that emits a warmer white as it dims like a true halogen source.

CRS Electronics announces private placement

Canadian LED lighting manufacturer CRS Electronics Inc. (TSX Venture: LED) has entered into a binding agreement for a private placement of 30,400,548 common shares to CJL Holding Inc. At a share price of $0.2921, the placement is expected to generate aggregate proceeds of $8,880,000 for CRS.

CJL Holding Inc. is owned by Chang Jiang Wu, the chairman and CEO of NVC Lighting Technology Corporation. NVC is a leading Asian lighting manufacturer and its stock trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As part of the transaction, Wu will also become the executive chairman of CRS.

When the private placement closes, CJL Holding Inc. will own approximately 42.7% of the issued and outstanding common shares of CRS. The company is not proceeding with previously-announced financing which was to have been led by Canaccord Genuity Corp., and will not be replacing its CEO as previously planned.

For the financial year ended December 31, 2011, CRS had sales of $2.14 million, down almost 30% on the previous year. The company’s net loss before income tax in 2011 was $3.29 million.

Soraa expands executive team

Soraa, developer of GaN-on-GaN LED technology, has added two executives to its leadership team. Tom Caulfield has assumed the position of chief operating officer and Ray Letasi joins Soraa as VP of global sales (view press release).

Caulfield has held numerous executive positions in publicly traded and private companies including serving as COO of Ausra, Inc. He has also worked at Novellus Systems, Inc. and IBM.

Letasi is the former president and COO of EcoSense Lighting, and is a veteran of Color Kinetics, now part of Philips.

Soraa recently launched its Vivid LED MR16 lamp, which is designed to replace standard 40 to 50W MR16 halogen lamps and is available in 2700K and 3000K correlated color temperatures. It has a color-rendering index (CRI) of 95 and R9 of 90.