View, Inc.

View
Private
Industry Smart glass
Founded 2006
Headquarters Milpitas, California, United States
Key people
 Rao Mulpuri (CEO)
Paul Nguyen (Chairman, Founder)
Products Switchable glass curtain walls, windows, doors, and skylights
Number of employees
 201-500
Website viewglass.com

View, previously Soladigm, is a company working on the development of energy-saving smart windows based on electrochromism that can control light and heat while maintaining view and reducing glare.[1][2] Originally named Echromics, Soladigm was founded in 2006 by Dr. Paul Nguyen, an expert who had worked in electrochromism since graduate school in the early 1990s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2007, Mike Scobey was hired to be CEO. Scobey was later replaced by Rao Mulpuri as the new CEO of the company.[3] On November 12, 2012, Soladigm announced a name change to View, Inc. and that its commercial-scale dynamic glass product is ready for global deployment.[4]

Funding

After raising around $10.6M in Series A funding from Sigma Partners and Khosla Ventures, Soladigm focused on building up a team of experienced technologists and executives and developing its technology.[5] In 2009, Soladigm closed an additional $20.7M in Series B funding from its existing investors and moved its headquarters from Santa Rosa to Milpitas, CA.[6] In late 2010, General Electric selected Soladigm to be a winner out of 3,800 contestants in 150 different countries in the Ecomagination Challenge.[7] In 2011, Soladigm raised at least $40M in Series C funding while receiving about $40M in loan from Mississippi to build its first manufacturing plant there.[8] In June 2012, View announced that it had raised $55M in Series D Financing.[9] In January 2015, View raised another $75M.[10] In August 2015, Forbes reported that View raised $150 million from the New Zealand Superfund, Corning, Madrone Capital Partners (associated with the Walton family), together with several leading real estate players. View was valued at over $836 million in this latest round. The new money would be used to accelerate market expansion. View Dynamic Glass has been installed in more than 200 building structures across North America, with an additional 100 underway in various commercial markets such as corporate offices, healthcare, government, higher education and hospitality.[11]

Products

The first switchable electrochromics window and skylight products from Soladigm are projected to reach the market in the spring of 2012.[12] In January 2012, Solar Innovations, Inc., a custom manufacturer of commercial and residential folding, stacking, and sliding glass doors and windows, glazed structures, and skylights, announced a new product offering with Soladigm's switchable electrochromic glass.[12] In April 2012, CrystaLite, Inc. began to offer a new product, Soladigm Dynamic Glass, to provide its customers with thermal comfort, energy saving, and architectural design freedom.[1] On May 10, 2012, Soladigm and Guardian Industries, one of the world's largest glass product manufacturers, announced a partnership to market and sell Soladigm Dynamic Glass in the commercial buildings sector.[13] In December 2013, a Forbes's article claimed that demands for View's products had been strong enough that View was sold out completely in 2013 and was working on fulfilling orders well into 2014.[14]

Competitors

View's main competitors include SAGE Electrochromics in the US and EControl-Glas in Europe. Saint-Gobain, a French multinational corporation which has successfully commercialized switchable electrochromic sunroofs, recently paid $80M to purchase a 50% stake in SAGE Electrochromics.[15] Since 2010, Applied Materials started to explore electrochomic smart glass as a new business opportunity, leveraging its expertise in thin film deposition and manufacturing technologies.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 "Soladigm Glass - CrystaLite, Inc". CrystaLite, Inc. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  2. ↑ Pentland, William (2012-04-18). "12 Energy Projects to Watch in 2012". Forbes. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ http://www.viewglass.com/press.php#press
  5. ↑ http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/soladigm Archived April 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ "Sigma Partners | CrunchBase Profile". Crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  7. ↑ Baker, David R. (2010-11-17). "General Electric picks winning ideas". Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  8. ↑ Wang, Ucilia (2011-02-15). "Soladigm Closes $40M for Its First Smart Window Factory". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  9. ↑ "Soladigm raises $55M in Series D financing". Business Journal. 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
  10. ↑ "Smart window startup View is raising another $75M". GIGAOM. 2015-01-05. Retrieved 2015-01-09.
  11. ↑ "Smart Window Maker View Raises $150 Million". Forbes. 2015-08-13. Retrieved 2015-08-013. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  12. 1 2 Category sponsor: (January 17, 2012). "Solar Innovations partners with Soladigm to provide glazing systems with dynamic glass". Glass Magazine. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  13. ↑ http://www.sunherald.com/2012/05/10/3938898/guardian-industries-and-soladigm.html[]
  14. ↑ Noglows, Paul (2013-12-11). "How View Is Reinventing Your Windows". Forbes.
  15. ↑ "Saint-Gobain to make $80 million strategic investment in SAGE to revolutionize building industry with mass-produced, affordable dynamic glass technology". Business Wire. 2010-11-10. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  16. ↑ "What is Electrochromic Smart Glass?". The Applied Materials Blog. 2010-12-13. Retrieved 2012-05-02. External link in |publisher= (help)

Further reading

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