Fanlight Runs the World's Concert Lightsticks — and It's Fully Self-Funded

By Grace Kim

A 90-minute setup time in the world's largest stadiums is the number Fanlight Global leans on hardest — and it's the reason the company says it has no real competition in synchronized crowd lighting.

Fanlight, founded in Korea in 2012 by former professional gamer Ashton Choi, designs, manufactures and operates wireless LED devices that turn live events into synchronized, immersive environments. Its U.S. CEO, Lynn Bartsch, laid out the company's pitch in an interview with Pulse 2.0: reusable collectibles that double as a revenue stream, not just a production cost.

"We can set up in the largest stadiums in the world in about 90 minutes and operate with almost no latency," Bartsch said. All devices run on AAA batteries, including rechargeable ones, and work at every show a fan brings them back to.

How did Fanlight start?

Choi got the idea at Disneyland in 2011, watching a crowd passively observe a parade. He envisioned every fan's lighted accessory moving in concert — a single, massive, synchronized wireless LED canvas. He launched Fanlight in 2012.

The 2015 SHINee Tokyo Dome concert marked the company's global arrival. In 2016, Fanlight launched the first wirelessly controlled K-pop lightstick — the product Bartsch credits with permanently transforming the language of fan culture. She saw the shift firsthand at two BTS concerts.

"When I took her to a BTS concert in April 2017, I encountered Fanlight for the first time," Bartsch said of her daughter. Back then, BTS's lightsticks — ARMY Bombs — didn't change color or sync to each other or the show. By her second BTS concert in 2018, they did. "That was the moment I knew I had to help bring this kind of emotionally immersive experience to artists and fans across the U.S. and the world."

What does the CEO bring to the table?

Bartsch started as an assistant audio engineer in the late 1980s, working on records with Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne and Dion DiMucci. She left for law school — "to approach the industry from a position of greater authority and stop having to deal with the nonsense" — then landed a paid internship at 30 Rock working on Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien and Dateline. She later went in-house at Disney and worked for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

"My entire personal and professional life has been tangled up with superfandoms in one way or another, and I think that gives me a unique vantage point for bringing Fanlight's technology, products, and services to a wider global market," she said.

What's the business model?

The technology goes into lightsticks, wristbands, badge holders, beach balls and other accessories. Each device integrates with Fanlight's app, which collects fan data for clients and gives them a direct line to their biggest supporters. Fanlight is privately held, family-run and fully self-funded.

The company is now looking at NFC chips to expand the devices beyond lighting: tap-to-pay, exclusive content unlocks and VIP-area entry. It has also built accessories that turn devices into bedside lamps, nightlights and Bluetooth speakers.

What stands in the way of Western expansion?

Two challenges, per Bartsch. First, timing: fully customized lightsticks or wristbands take four to six months to build, while major artists sometimes want something ready in two weeks — standard products with custom printing fill that gap. Second, fan education: the collectible identity isn't as embedded in Western culture as in Korea and Japan, so Fanlight co-creates marketing to make products part of the creative story.

"No one wants to be the one unlit section of the crowd," Bartsch said. Once that connection clicks, she argues, it becomes a self-renewing revenue source through new versions, multi-purpose products and special drops — holding far more appeal than another T-shirt or poster.

Milestones include manufacturing lightsticks for one of the biggest bands on Earth — unnamed, citing confidentiality clauses — including set pieces and props for their pandemic-era online concerts. The U.S. office opened in 2024.

Bartsch's next target markets are unglamorous by K-pop standards: collegiate sports and large-scale university graduations, where she sees the same crowd-sync chemistry working at scale.