The two founders of the company met first on a hike in the Hollywood Hills by night in the late nineties. At this time they were both inscribed at the California State University, East Bay near San Francisco.
Eckhart Toelle was just about to get his bachelor degree in electrical engineering. Osho Tyler had recently started his master program in materials engineering. It should have been an easy hike to the Hollywood Sign. To better find their way up to the hill they equipped themselves with two flashlights. But unfortunately the two flashlights gave up early due to low energy efficiency and they ended up going in the wrong direction. They were devastated and concluded they never wanted to rely on this technology again. After this incident they decided to develop their own flashlight that was more efficient regarding the energy consumption or at least had a better light output in comparison to a flashlight using normal light bulbs.
Eckhart and Osho started to experiment with the upcoming LED technology at one of their parents’ garage. Just two years later they had developed their first prototype model and won the universities’ yearly innovation award. This was the time they had first contact with investors. Not long after the award ceremony Eckhart and Osho founded the company that was going to be one of the biggest and most influential LED technology based providers in the world.
By 2005 they had overcome the initial technical problems of the LED technology and where providing now a variety of LED flashlights. The development, marketing and sales were directed from their office in the Bay Area. The production took place in China via contractors. By this time the company started to diversify its product program in adding stationary illumination systems.
Electrical engineering
Eckhart Toelle was just about to get his bachelor degree in electrical engineering. Osho Tyler had recently started his master program in materials engineering. It should have been an easy hike to the Hollywood Sign.
To better find their way up to the hill they equipped themselves with two flashlights. But unfortunately the two flashlights gave up early due to low energy efficiency and they ended up going in the wrong direction. They were devastated and concluded they never wanted to rely on this technology again.
After this incident they decided to develop their own flashlight that was more efficient regarding the energy consumption or at least had a better light output in comparison to a flashlight using normal light bulbs.
LED technology
Eckhart and Osho started to experiment with the upcoming LED technology at one of their parents’ garage. Just two years later they had developed their first prototype model and won the universities’ yearly innovation award. This was the time they had first contact with investors. Not long after the award ceremony Eckhart and Osho founded the company that was going to be one of the biggest and most influential LED technology based providers in the world. By 2005 they had overcome the initial technical problems of the LED technology and where providing now a variety of LED flashlights. The development, marketing and sales were directed from their office in the Bay Area. The production took place in China via contractors. By this time the company started to diversify its product program in adding stationary illumination systems.
Indoor purposes
The first new branch was built to satisfy the customers’ growing demand for LED garden lamps. With the success of this new business segment it was concluded to expand the company portfolio. In the beginning of 2010 new capital was gathered from investors that was used to establish new segments in the LED illumination of constructions as well as LED lighting solutions for indoor purposes. One year later the two founders of the company in demand for lowering the costs of their business moved the whole company to China. To fully align their products to the companies’ vision and mission it was decided to incorporate the largest part of the value chain. Following this demand the company built its own production facility nearby the headquarter in China. Nowadays the company is eagerly engaged in pushing forward innovative LED solutions and giving the customer access to them.