Sam Goldman

D.Light Design founding CEO Sam Goldman stepped down today to transition his role to board chairman Donn Tice. The company’s other founder Ned Tozun continues in his current role as president, retaining responsibility for developing new markets while Goldman will take on the role of chief customer officer said a press release. In a letter to employees, Goldman and Tozun write, “Since the beginning we have been clear with our board and investors that at some point we would ask for a seasoned CEO to ensure that we meet D.Light’s ambitious goals. That time has come and the board has supported our request.”

Founded in 2007 by Stanford Business School graduates Goldman, Tozun, Xianyi Wu, Erica Estrada and Gabriel Risk, D.Light is best described as a micro-multinational. It makes solar-powered lighting solutions for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers. The company is headquartered in the Cayman Islands with corporate headquarters effectively in Palo Alto, California. Product design and international sales and marketing is based in Hong Kong. Manufacturing and design is done out of Shenzhen in China and its primary markets are India and Africa. The company’s product offering currently includes three solar lighting products: the S250 solar lantern and mobile charger, the S10 lantern and the Solata S380 study light. Revenues and profit numbers are not known.

New CEO Donn Tice has been an advisor to D.Light since March 2008 and joined the board in November 2008. He earlier founded Sustainable Solutions in 2006 which helped consumer and cleantech private equity investors growth their portfolios, served as CEO of Nano-Tex between 2003 and 2006 (where he built a stain-resistant fabirc technology into a successful consumer nanotech business) and led Winterland between 1997 and 2002, growing sales from $30 million to $110 million. At D.Light he has been closely involved with the firm’s fundraising and product launches.

D.Light has raised several rounds of funding from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Acumen Fund, DFJ, Gray Matters Capital, Garage Technology Ventures and Mahindra & Mahindra. The company raised a $5.5 million Series B round last June from Omidyar Network and existing investors. It raised a $5.5 million Series A round in November 2008. The round was led by Nexus and included a posse of investors including Mahindra and DFJ.