nLight Photonics Secures $44 Million in Second Round Funding
Source: nLight Photonics
Funding Accelerates Development of High Performance Optical Components
SEATTLE, WA. nLight Photonics, a pioneer in high-performance optical components, today announced that it has raised $44 million in its second round of financing. This funding will accelerate the development of the company s innovative pump lasers, which will provide increased transmission capacity to optical networks. In addition, the funding will facilitate the expansion of the company s manufacturing operations in Seattle and Vancouver, WA.
nLight s second round was led by Menlo Ventures and Oak Investment Partners. Also investing were Mohr, Davidow Ventures, Adams Capital Management, Cedar Grove Investments, and a number of individuals with deep backgrounds in the optics business. nLight raised $9 million six months ago in a first round led by early-stage investor Mohr, Davidow Ventures. Included in the investors portfolios are a number of next-generation optical systems providers and infrastructure companies that can benefit from nLight s new technology.
"The backing of such well regarded investors will enable us to continue attracting top industry talent and accelerate our product development efforts," said nLight President and CEO Scott Keeney.
Pump lasers are a crucial technology to support the continued capacity expansion of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems. Driven by the Internet and associated bandwidth-hungry applications, data traffic has seen unprecedented growth, doubling nearly every 100 to 120 days. In an effort to keep pace with bandwidth demand, capacity in the long-distance backbone has grown over 12,000 percent since early 1997. As a result, the pump laser market has grown significantly. According to RHK, a leading optical component research firm, the pump laser market was the fastest growing segment in the optical component industry last year, growing at 170 percent. The market is expected to continue growing at over 40 percent per year and to exceed $4 billion by 2004.
To support continued growth, two new optical amplifiers will be required for next generation optical transport systems: higher power EDFAs and fundamentally new Raman amplifiers. Both of these new amplifiers will in turn require advancements in pump lasers. Current pump laser technology is a bottleneck to the implementation of these new amplifiers. By reducing cost, improving functionality, and increasing integration, nLight s technology will remove this bottleneck, creating a breakthrough in affordable bandwidth.
"Venture capitalists are very selective about investments in optical component companies these days," said Douglas Carlisle, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures. "nLight s high-performance pump modules address a unique opportunity to enable new optical amplifiers that will reduce system costs and increase data speeds to 40Gbps."
Added Bandel Carano of Oak Investment Partners, "In addition to innovative technology, nLight has a strong execution track record and an outstanding team with strong operations and manufacturing capabilities."
"What makes nLight so compelling is the team s execution in building high performance products that are also designed to be manufacturable - where others add complexity, nLight s approach is elegant," said Bill Ericson, Mohr, Davidow Ventures general partner and nLight board member.
nLight s team includes experienced managers from SDL, Opto Power, Terabeam, and other innovative industry leaders. Joining nLight s board in conjunction with this financing round are Bandel Carano of Oak Investment Partners and Doug Carlisle of Menlo Ventures.
About nLight Photonics
Founded in 2000, nLight is developing scalable pump lasers for achieving greater information bandwidth across fiber optic communications systems. nLight is currently developing products and has manufacturing facilities in Seattle and Vancouver, WA. nLight investors include Adams Capital Management; Cedar Grove; Oak Investment Partners; Menlo Ventures; Mohr, Davidow Ventures; and Sunrise Capital. For more information please visit the company s Web site at http://www.nlightphotonics.com
Contact: Pamela Mahoney, Mohr Davidow Ventures (650) 854-7236, pmahoney@mdv.com
Pamela Mahoney, Mohr Davidow Ventures
(650) 854-7236, pmahoney@mdv.com
E-mail: pmahoney@mdv.com
Web site: http://www.nlightphotonics.com
