Meet the Angels: Jim and Karen Linder

Nebraska Angels Fund Kansas Company

Nitride Solutions Inc., a company based in Wichita, Kansas that develops products for light-emitting devices (LEDs), lasers and electronics, has secured a total of $1.8 million in funding from the Nebraska Angels and investment groups in Kansas and California.

Nitride Solutions will produce substrates that are used to build electronics such as DVD players, TVs, and other LED products. The company’s innovation in technology will create aluminum nitride substrates at a high volume and a low cost while improving on the defect rate of current products on the market. The product will help manufacturers lower their costs while increasing the efficiency of power systems in hybrid vehicles, improving consumer and industrial lighting, sharpening color on flat-screen TVs, and enhancing air and water purifiers. Nitride will use the funding to begin manufacturing and sales by the end of 2011.

“Nitride Solutions’ novel method of creating substrates will change the market,” said Karen Linder, co- deal lead for Nebraska Angels in Lincoln. “The technology is revolutionary, and the leadership team has the commercial experience and the scientific skills that will make the company successful.”

Nebraska Angels President, John Brasch said, “Nitride Solutions is a technology play with exciting possibilities. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to invest in their proposal. This was our first instance of investing with our peers from Kansas angel groups. We look forward to their co-investing with us in future Nebraska based startup company opportunities.”

Founded in 2009, Nitride Solutions is led by president and CEO Jeremy Jones, who has 30-plus years of experience in advanced materials businesses and COO Jason Schmitt, who has worked with this technology for 14 years.