E m E r g I n g T E C h n O L O g Y
bcbusiness.ca october 2016 BCBusiness 55
A
fter nearly three
decades with some of
North America's larg-
est publicly traded
lighting companies,
Tim Berman found
himself feeling limited.
"You reach a point when
you're very high up that you
become more of a politician
than a doer."
That didn't sit well with
Berman, who realized
something needed to be done
to bring lighting into the
modern era. While the rise
and widespread availability
of light-emitting diodes (
LEDs)
was poised to revolutionize
the industry, with ener—y
ecient light sources capable
of Internet connectivity,
Berman knew the sector was
locked into a "staid" mental-
ity that would limit estab-
lished players in their ability
to take full advantage of the
new technolo—y. "The lighting
industry is a very old-school,
slow-growth market. In terms
of innovation, there's only
been incremental improve-
ments since the lamp."
With lighting compa-
nies heavily invested in the
logistics, infrastructure
and systems developed for
incandescent and compact
™uorescent bulbs, Berman
knew only a new kind of
company could harness the
potential of
LEDs and bring it
to a mainstream market. In
2011, he founded Fluxwerx
Illumination Inc. to take light-
ing to the next level—with
LED
xtures that would mimic the
dižuse, natural-seeming light
you get from windows minus
the glare produced by tradi-
tional bulbs. But rst he had
to build them. Over a two-
year prototyping process,
Berman's team used every-
thing from pressure cookers
to toaster ovens to come up
with a viable product, all the
while forgoing revenue. "All
this time I'm writing huge
cheques without knowing if
the product is going to work."
Much to his relief, it
did. These days Fluxwerx's
high-prole customer list
includes Microsoft oces in
Vancouver and Seattle, Bayer
Pharmaceutical and several
post-secondary institutions,
school districts and Fortune
500 companies. The com-
pany is also poised to play a
major role in the smart home
market, with the potential
for its light xtures to include
sensors that regulate room
temperature and ener—y use,
and even distribute Internet
signals through a wireless
technolo—y known as Light
Fidelity (Li-Fi).
Last year the company
saw revenues of $28 million,
up from $9.6 million in 2014,
and is on track for $56 million
in 2016. In March, Fluxwerx
went public when Montreal-
based Lumenpulse Group
acquired it in a deal worth
$60 million. —J.B.
WINNER
Tim Berman
President and Founder,
Fluxwerx
Illumination Inc.
