According to an acquaintance who worked there, the original research was funded by the Gates Foundation’s anti-malaria R&D program. Intellectual Ventures developed the prototype Photonic Fence (http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-i...) but concluded that low-tech things like bed nets had higher benefit per dollar for malaria prevention, particularly when you factor in the challenge of powering the device in areas without reliable electricity (the kill laser requires enough power to make solar non-trivial).

The good news is that they licensed it to a company for commercialization last year:

http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/new-collaborat...

The business plan I'd like to see would be selling it as a luxury for the relatively affluent and use that sales volume to drive the manufacturing costs down. I live in Washington DC and it'd have to be really expensive compared to the cost of real-estate which is unpleasant to use from May to November due to mosquitoes, not to mention the growing number of people who will pay a premium not to spray pesticides around their children and pets. Diseases like Zika, Dengue, etc. should boost that even higher.