Nanoleaf was founded in 2012 by three friends and University of Toronto engineering graduates Gimmy Chu, Christian Yan and Tom Rodinger.They were each working in different industries after graduation while creating Nanoleaf on the side. After a year, the three quit their jobs to develop the company full-time. In January 2013, Nanoleaf launched their first product on Kickstarter.The crowdfunding campaign for NanoLight (later renamed Nanoleaf One) received $250,000 from the crowdfunding site, with an initial goal of $20,000. Following the success of this campaign, Nanoleaf received funding from Horizons Ventures, an investment company owned by Li Ka Shing and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.The company also opened their first offices in Shenzhen, China and Hong Kong.
