June 4, 2024
The Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund has invested $125,000 into Germantown-based JumpLights Inc., a company that develops innovative LED horticulture lighting solutions for farmers practicing controlled environment agriculture.
The investment is part of JumpLights’ recently closed and oversubscribed $1.65 million seed round of funding, which included support from Mizrahi Enterprises LLC.
The Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund invests in Maryland-based startup companies with innovative technologies that aid in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. Supported by funding from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the seed fund is administered by the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, an initiative of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.
“The Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund’s investment in our company has already yielded impact,” said Matteo Del Ninno, chief technology officer of JumpLights. “Before the investment, we were doing six figures in annual sales. We are now on track to hit eight figures in 2025. We’ve hired more engineers and sales staff and we’ve scaled up our manufacturing.”
JumpLights has developed a proprietary horticultural lighting platform that enhances plant growth and increases the efficiency of greenhouse farming and controlled environment agriculture.
Greenhouses traditionally deploy inefficient, energy-intensive, high-pressure sodium or fluorescent lights. JumpLights’ three product offerings feature energy-saving light-emitting diodes, configurable for different spectrums.
“We have multiple different spectrums to do what a grower wants,” said Del Ninno. “For lettuce, we can make it grow quickly, be high in nutritional value, thick, crunchy, and have a good shelf life.”
The company’s lighting systems can also be customized for different light intensity, light directionality, cost efficiency, and power efficiency, based upon a plant’s type and its stage of growth.
Some product lines offer an architecture that eliminates the need for a heat sink, reducing cooling costs and increasing the life of lighting.
JumpLights’ Prism ETS (efficient thermal stack) product provides LED over-canopy lighting for greenhouses growing ornamental plants, lettuce, and cannabis.
Prism ETS is 33 percent more efficient than competing solutions in the market, resulting in lower energy costs and reduced CO2 emission, according to the company.
JumpLights’ BudKickerTM over-canopy system features high-intensity LED grow lights that produce substantially more grams per square foot of premium flowers than traditional lights. The product penetrates canopies by shining at multiple angles and from dispersed locations. BudKicker’s use of the far-red spectrum improves plants’ conversion of visible light.
Finally, the company’s Catalyst™ under-canopy grow light, designed for growing cannabis, provides increased light penetration from below, increasing crop yields and premium flower weight by up to 70 percent, according to the company.
What’s more, JumpLights’ SpectroTouch Controller lets greenhouses manage multiple products simultaneously.
The company piloted its products in Keymar, Md.-based Catoctin Mountain Growers’ greenhouses in 2021 through a $200,000 grant from TEDCO’s Agriculture and Rural Rebuild (ARR) Challenge.
During the pilot, CMG’s crops grew 60 percent faster. The company also saved 206,000 kWh in energy use annually and lowered its yearly energy costs by $48,000. JumpLights also worked with CLEAResult to award CMG over $200,000 in energy rebates.
“JumpLights’ systems lower energy usage, which cuts greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sarah Lane, director of the Office of Restoration and Resilience for the Chesapeake and Coastal Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “Emissions lead to changes in our climate that increase nutrient and sediment loads to the Chesapeake Bay, thus reducing emissions will result in decreased nutrients and sediment entering Maryland’s waterways.”
Founded in 2016, JumpLights employs 15 people, most of them in Maryland, according to Del Ninno.
The company’s products are designed, tested, and assembled in their 4,000-square-foot Germantown facility, while parts come from Maryland and around the world.
JumpLights has multiple patents pending around its technology.
Including this recent seed round of funding, the company has raised over $2 million.
“JumpLights’ value proposition is in the flexibility of its overall technology platform, as well as the individual benefits from each of their proprietary building blocks,” said Scott Christensen, manager of the Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund. “Growers can gain a 40 percent savings in power consumption and a 30 percent increase in crop yield, all while reducing the climate impact of farming on the Chesapeake Bay. It’s a win-win.”
The company received a $90,000 Maryland Industrial Partnerships project award in 2021, with a $10,000 JumpLights match, to work with Patrick McCluskey, professor, department of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, to develop advanced cooling for higher density lighting fixtures.
JumpLights plans to enter additional growing markets in the future, for products such as strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and cut flowers.
