8 Top Automotive Lighting Startups Impacting The Industry

We analyzed 507 automotive lighting startups. EFi Lighting, Lightly Technologies, Kubos Semiconductor, Versalume, Luminor, Optoflux, Trieye, and Flexenable develop 8 top solutions to watch out for. Learn more in our Global Startup Heat Map!

Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for the automotive sector. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 8 promising automotive lighting startups.

Heat Map: 8 Top Automotive Lighting Startups

For our 8 top picks, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 8 interesting examples out of 507 relevant solutions. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.

Automotive-Lighting-Startups-Automotive-Heat-Map-StartUs-Insights-noresize

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Which startups develop the other 499 solutions?

 

Versalume – Flexible External Lighting

Lighting solutions for automobiles are always integrated or embedded into their application areas such as dashboards, seats, etc. which makes customizing or additions very difficult especially for customers after they have made their purchase.

The US-based startup Versalume is a specialist in the provision and distribution of fiber optic-based integrated lighting solutions. Versalume’s lighting products are created for design applications and product development. The lighting comes equipped with rechargeable batteries that remove the technical limitations in terms of their potential use-cases.

Lightly Technologies – Ultra-Thin LED Lighting Panel

External lighting and interior panel lighting are important features of vehicles as they complete the aesthetic of a vehicle, and in many cases, creates a market pull. The automotive industry is moving away from large bulky lighting systems to more advanced LED-based lighting. The challenge facing lighting manufacturers is in being able to create flexible lighting panels that can meet unconventional designs.

Irish startup Lightly Technologies is a lighting platform designer and manufacturer. They manufacture automotive lights that are designed for a vehicle’s external and internal panel lighting. The ultra-thin and flexible structure of their lighting module allows for newer designs without compromising their functionality.

Kubos Semiconductor – Gallim Nitride (GaN)-Based LED

A lighting system is only as efficient as its most vital component – the LED light source. The manufacturing process of an LED can have a substantial impact on the quality of the product. Startups and emerging companies that manufacture LED always try to innovate the process of layering materials, and now use GaN for next-generation LEDs.

British startup Kubos Semiconductors is an LED manufacturer using Cubic-GaN technology to produce LED, instead of the conventional Hexagonal-GaN. The ability to replace conventional substrates, increase brightness and efficiency, along with a scalable production process, makes this an ideal solution for product developers.

FlexEnable – Flexible OLED Displays

As manufacturers approach level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles, the need for better human-machine interfaces also increases as drivers will be able to focus more on the vehicle’s interior rather than on the road. As infotainment systems become more advanced, one avenue that startups and emerging companies are moving towards is implementing flexible displays in the interior of vehicles.

British startup FlexEnable is a developer and manufacturer of flexible OLED displays for many industrial applications. Their organic LCD technology allows them to manufacture large, shatterproof, and flexible screens that are brighter than conventional displays without reducing its display lifetime.

Which startups develop the other 499 solutions?

Optoflux – Optical Lenses For Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems Sensors

Vehicles that use advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) collect visual data from many different types of visual sensors to maximize the amount of information available about their surroundings. Adding more sensors or devices only results in higher complexity and costs, which is why manufacturers are developing better optics and lenses to allow existing devices to capture high-resolution visual data.

German startup Optoflux manufactures optical lenses for LEDs, cameras, and LiDAR devices for automotive applications. Their manufacturing process is designed to create lenses that capture highly accurate images with minimal distortions, saving time and resources for the production cycle.

EFi Lighting – Interior Surface Lighting

Automotive designers constantly try to reinvent the interiors of automotive vehicles and this is one of the most important areas for autonomous vehicle interior designers. Automotive lighting startups address the challenges of integrating lighting into the vehicle’s interior surface and building flexible lighting for the curved surfaces.

French startup EFi Lighting develops automotive lighting solutions for vehicle interiors. Their lighting product, called Light Guides, is a flexible fiber optic-based light source, with uniform light dispersion, that can be integrated into any design space. EFi Lighting’s patented manufacturing process enables them to work with automotive lighting designers to create customized automotive lighting.

TriEye – Shortwave-Infrared (SWIR) Camera For Automotive

Autonomous and ADAS need to have visibility of their environment at all times to be able to process and make decisions that tackle problems when visibility is low or poor. SWIR cameras are used to assist vehicle systems in situations where conventional sensors have difficulty, for example, during nights or rough weather conditions.

Israeli startup TriEye is a semiconductor manufacturer that specializes in cameras for low visibility environments to aid autonomous vehicles and ADAS. Their sensor architecture and data type are designed to be easily integrated into existing autonomous vehicles and ADAS. Their SWIR sensing technology addresses the challenge of safe and reliable vision under adverse weather and other common low-visibility conditions.

Lumilor – Electroluminescent Paint

When creating concept cars, automotive designers are looking for the best possible way to capture the attention of the viewers and generate interest. Lighting is one of the methods used to capture consumer attention. Currently limited by applications only for the external surface of a vehicle, startups are taking a creative approach to light the exterior of automotive vehicles. This opens the door for artistic expression, usually limited for automotive designers.

Indian automotive startup Luminor is a painting company that develops patented electroluminescent paint. The painting process is the same as any other automotive paint, removing the need for any special system to use it. The luminescent paint has high visibility even in tough weather conditions like fog and heavy rain.

What About The Other 499 Solutions?

While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 8 startups showcased above are promising examples out of 507 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.

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