Fiber component makers top up venture funding
Two fiber-optic component vendors have topped up their latest venture financing rounds as the optical networking sector continues to show signs of a recovery.
Picolight, a Louisville, CO, company specializing in 1310 nm VCSELs, has added $14.5 million through a combination of equity investment and debt finance.
Investor Growth Capital (IGC), a new investor in the company, provided $7 million, with Albert Kim from the IGC now joining the Picolight board.
ORIX Venture Finance has provided a debt facility worth an additional $7.5 million.
Picolight says that it will use the money to scale up its manufacturing process, while it is also planning to extend its VCSEL product capability from 4 Gb/s to 10 Gb/s.
According to the company, revenue and orders have doubled in the past year as the fiber-optic sector has finally begun to regain momentum.
Also looking to scale-up production is Alphion of Princeton, NJ, a component vendor specializing in InP integration.
It has secured an extra $1.5 million, bringing its third-round equity investment to $12.1 million and total funding so far to $44.1 million.
Alphion's flagship "QLight" products are based on monolithic integration on InP chips. The new funding is expected to help the company expand the product range, which currently includes transponders, amplifiers and switches.
Alphion CEO Bharat Dave said: "This funding will allow us to"¦gear up our operations to meet the growing market demand."
