It took nine months to set up the facility, using money from LitCapital and the EU's Structural Funds. The company says that the total investments amount to 14 million litas (EUR 4m).
Dominykas Vizbaras, CEO of Brolis Semiconductors, admitted that the company had been considering three potential sites for the construction of the laboratory. Eventually Lithuania was chosen as the best location.
“It appeared that it can be done in the easiest and most cost-effective way here [in Lithuania]. The European Investment Fund’s (EIF) JEREMIE initiative made it possible for new business funding tools to develop in the last four years. Support from EU structural funds was very significant,” Vizbaras said during the official ceremony held to mark the opening of the facility in Vilnius on Wednesday.
Other potential sites included the US and Germany, he added.
Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė said during the ceremony that the company would create large added value.
“It is an excellent example for all of us that Lithuania is able, the Lithuanians want to be able and the Lithuanians stay in Lithuania,” she said.
Vizbaras said that the next goal was to deliver the first R&D laser diode products by late February 2013. The company will develop a long-wavelength semiconductor laser technology in 2012 to 2015.
LitCapital has provided up to 1 million euros in investments for the first stage of development. The fund has acquired a majority stake in the company from its founders, the Vizbaras brothers.
Brolis Semiconductors plans to develop lasers for use in plastics, welding, night vision systems, laser radars, search and rescue operations and defense. The company plans that its products will be unique in the world.
Brolis Semiconductors has already attracted interest from several US and European high-technology companies, which have expressed serious intentions to buy its products.
