DenseLight receives $30 million investment from 3i

Company growing rapidly, ready for commercial production

Founded by four former professors from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, DenseLight was incorporated in May 2000 and currently employs close to 100 employees, of whom over 50% hold PhD and Masters degrees. "With capital in place, a strong technology base, an experienced team, a wide range of innovative products, rapid time-to-market and global technical support, DenseLight is poised to be a major player in providing advanced component solutions to our customers, " noted Dr Yee-Loy Lam, DenseLight s Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. He added, "As the functional requirements for optical components multiply with the evolving complexity of global optical networks, our technologies will become very important, providing a vital solution for today s customers." DenseLight has developed revolutionary photonics technologies that the company believes for the first time enables the commercial fabrication of integrated optical subsystems incorporating both active and passive components onto a single indium phosphide chip. The company s proprietary DensePICä technology allows it to manufacture a wide range of innovative high-performance indium phosphide (InP) based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to meet the stringent needs of next-generation high-speed optical networks, empowering customers with competitive advantages in performance, power consumption, footprint, and total cost of ownership. Added Dr Lam, "DenseLight s goal is to continuously invent and implement market-leading technologies to render high-yield and high-volume manufacturing of next-generation optical components. We believe that DensePICä will enable a paradigm shift in next-generation optical networking, significantly reducing total cost of ownership for our customers."

Market segment set for solid growth

The dense wavelength division multiplexing ("DWDM") optical components market (including active and passive components, modules and subsystems) is one of the fastest growing sectors of the telecommunications market. Over the last few years, exponential growth in global data traffic and the proliferation of corporate networks have created unprecedented demand for bandwidth. While bandwidth has been added to long haul networks, there are still major bottlenecks in metro areas where DenseLight s cost-effective, high-performance products are a timely solution for increasingly cost-conscious customers looking to add capacity to this segment of the market. 3i brings expertise and contacts - in addition to capital DenseLight is one of 3i s largest investments in the region to date since the company established its Asia Pacific business in 1997. The international venture capital group has been investing in the optical components industry for over 10 years and has built up a select international portfolio across Europe, the United States and with this investment, in Asia. "We are very excited to be investing in such a promising business," noted Jane Crawford, Managing Director 3i Asia Pacific. "The company has a talented management team and proprietary technology and products with significant global potential." She added, "The 3i team is working closely with the company as they continue to commercialise their technology and look to further funding rounds in the international marketplace. Our intention is to connect them to a wide range of international contacts with industry and business expertise and the ability to help drive the company s long term success." Added Dr Lam, "3i s investment is a strong endorsement of DenseLight s technology and brings significant benefits to the business as we look to launch the company commercially on the global stage. 3i s long experience in growing businesses coupled with their ability to connect DenseLight with other innovative players via their unique international network will, we believe, add real value to DenseLight." Ian Lobley, a senior member of 3i s Communications Sector Group commented, "3i is seeking to back companies who will drive the next wave of the optical revolution where large scale deployment of low-cost products will be achieved. DenseLight is a good example of the type of businesses 3i is looking to back, and shows the geographical breadth of 3i s investments in the global optical components industry."

About DenseLight Semiconductors

Headquartered in Singapore, DenseLight Semiconductors provides value-added component solutions for next-generation optical networks. DenseLight Semiconductors mission is to deliver integrated optical subsystems on a single chip, thereby empowering customers with competitive advantages in performance, power consumption, footprint, and total cost of ownership. DenseLight has from the beginning organised itself to be a leading player in the optical components market. The company has established a highly functional online support network backed by telephone and other support that is designed to meet the needs of customers around the world in a timely and flexible manner. DenseLight is ready to begin commercial production, with a 50,000 sq. ft. purpose-built facility housing its headquarters, R&D and manufacturing operations under one roof. Its 15,000 sq. ft. submicron-class cleanroom is fully equipped for cutting-edge InP wafer fabrication, enabling vertical integration from product design to epitaxial growth, wafer processing, backend processing, packaging, and functional & reliability testing. The company has launched a number of new products, including direct modulated DFB lasers, high-performance gain chips and superluminescent diodes with soon to be released products including tunable lasers, Raman pump lasers and embedded optical channel monitors. 3i: Hamish Bell, Tel +65 438-3131, Email hamish_bell@3i.com
(Janice Lee, Tel +65 216 0419)
Ian Lobley, Tel +44 207 975-3147, Email ian_lobley@3i.com
DenseLight: Dr Lye-Hing Chua, Tel +65 415-4432, Email lhchua@denselight.com
Dr Siu-Chung Tam, Tel +65 415-4418, Email sctam@denselight.com
Burson Marsteller: Lynn
Unrau, Tel +65 336 6266, Email lynn_unrau@sg.bm.com
Belina Tan, Tel +65 331 5291, Email belina_tan@sg.bm.com
E-mail: belina_tan@sg.bm.com
Web site: http://www.denselight.com