LOUISVILLE, Colo., Aug. 17, 2005 – Picolight, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of optical transceivers and components, announced today that it has completed a $27.5 million funding effort, with the addition of $14.5 million in a combination of new equity investment and debt financing. Investor Growth Capital, a new investor, completed the second close with a $7 million equity investment, and was joined by ORIX Venture Finance, LLC, which provided an additional $7.5 million in debt financing. Investor Growth Capital joins previous investors BA Venture Partners, Vesbridge Partners and Coral Capital Management, who collectively invested $13 million in the first close of the round.
Picolight will use the latest round of investment to expand its operations, scale its manufacturing process to meet growing customer demand, and extend its 1310nm VCSEL products from 4 Gigabit fibre channel to 10 Gigabit Ethernet at long-reach over single-mode fiber. Picolight’s revenues and bookings for the past 12 months doubled year-over-year as the company continued to strengthen its product offering and expand its customer base.
“The completion of this funding round combined with our increased sales performance positions us to invest in new technologies to meet the needs of our growing customer base and establishes us as a market leader for high-performing enterprise, storage area and metro network interconnect technology,” said Steve Hane, Picolight’s president and chief executive officer. “This funding round will take us well past our financial break-even goal as we continue to strongly support our customers with the best products to help move their business forward.”
“Picolight has demonstrated strong momentum with increased revenues and customer traction and is a proven market leader in VCSEL technology and data communications applications for the enterprise, storage area and metro area networks,” said Albert Kim of Investor Growth Capital, who joins Picolight’s board of directors as a result of the investment. “Picolight’s VCSEL technology expertise and product development in the optical marketplace are key attributes that will help drive the company’s continued success and we are enthusiastic about its future prospects.”
About Picolight Inc.
Picolight Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Colo., is an innovative designer and manufacturer of optical components and vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)-based optical transceivers for high-bandwidth optical systems in rapidly growing data center, enterprise, storage area, and metro networking markets. The company’s mission is to leverage its breakthrough VCSEL technology, vertically integrated manufacturing strategy, and a market-focused culture to drive next generation optical interconnects for datacom applications. The company is dedicated to targeted product innovations in key growth markets that will fuel business expansion and profitability. Picolight is a rapidly growing, venture-funded company in a fast-paced optical transceiver and components market. For more information, see www.picolight.com or email sales@picolight.com.
About Investor Growth Capital
Investor Growth Capital is a venture capital and private equity advisory group wholly owned by Investor AB, the largest industrial holding company in the Nordic region. Investor Growth Capital focuses on investments in growth companies in the IT and healthcare sectors in Europe, North America and Asia. For more information, go to: www.investorgrowthcapital.com
About ORIX Venture Finance, LLC
ORIX Venture Finance, LLC, a member of the Corporate Finance Group of ORIX USA Corporation, with offices in Silicon Valley; Newport Beach, Calif.; Hartford, Conn.; New York; Northern Virginia; and Dallas, provides enterprise financing to mid- to late-stage companies via acquisition and growth capital. The ORIX Venture Finance team consists of experienced finance professionals who understand the challenges growth companies face and structure flexible financing packages to meet these unique needs. For more information about ORIX Venture Finance, go to www.orix.com.
Editorial Contacts:
| Vidya Sharma Picolight Inc. 303-527-7448 vidya.sharma@picolight.com |
Kelly Poffenberger Weber Shandwick Worldwide 949-428-3868 kpoffenberger@webershandwick.com |
