China Everbright backs smart illumination start-up

Everbright provided the round’s latest tranche alongside Goldstone Investment, a division of CITIC Securities. Cathay Capital led an earlier tranche that featured Blueprint Capital, Shunwei Capital, and GIC Private. 

Founded in 2012, Yeelight claims an extensive product line ranging from table lighting and atmosphere lighting to smart control systems. It partnered with smart phone maker Xiaomi in 2014 to develop a system that is fully compatible with China's mainstream smart voice recognition systems, including Xiaomi’s Xiao AI voice assistant. 

Last year, the company started developing products that fully support Apple’s HomeKit system for smart home appliances. HomeKit allows Apple mobile phone users to control lighting devices through the Siri voice recognition function.

Yeelight is said to have sold 15 million illumination products across 110 countries and regions. “We are optimistic about the development of the global smart home industry. Lighting, as the primary application scenario for smart homes, is still in a very rapid growth period,” said Lanchun Duan, a managing partner at Cathay, in a statement. 

Recent activity in China’s smart home space includes a $100 million Series B round for Lumi United, an appliances and internet-of-things solutions provider backed by Xiaomi. 

Meanwhile, COSMOPlat, an industrial internet platform developed by Chinese home appliance giant Haier Group, raised RMB950 million in Series A funding led by the state-owned China Structural Reform Fund. COSMOPlat aims to help enterprises digitize the manufacturing of smart home products.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• Consumer
• China
• artificial intelligence
• Cathay Capital Private Equity
• GIC Private
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• Goldstone Investment
• China Everbright
• manufacturing