Intense Photonics raises another $16 million
"We have followed the progress of Intense Photonics for some 18 months and have seen it develop considerably over this period,” said Tod Bensen, CEO of Cazenove Private Equity “The company has a first class management team that is dedicated to extracting value from its unique technology. The many current and potential applications of Intense Photonics quantum well intermixing techniques have given us the confidence to invest in the Company at a time when most photonics companies are struggling and market visibility remains poor."
”The difficulties in the technology capital markets have tended to conceal the fact that there are many sound businesses developing technology with a global application,” said Robin Winning of 3i. “Intense Photonics is one such business, which is reflected by the overall scale of 3i s investment in the Company and the fact that we have supported it from start-up.
Intense Photonics is a pioneer of quantum well intermixing (QWI) component processing techniques initially developed for over a decade at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. QWI can be used to selectively modify a semiconductor’s bandgap, enabling multiple functions to be integrated on a single chip. Intense are not the only start-up pursuing QWI as a route to manufacturing optical components. DenseLight Semiconductors of Singapore has also received backing from 3i and is fabricating components using its own method for QWI.
