The cash injection first came to light in the latest edition of the PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree report. In an email to fibresystems.org vice-president of marketing Marek Tlalka confirmed that the firm had indeed received funding, but declined to provide further details.
Luxtera, which sprung out of research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2001, has garnered three previous rounds of funding. Its most recent round was in March 2006, when it picked up $22 million from the likes of August Capital, Freescale Semiconductor, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and Sevin Rosen Funds.
Luxtera has also tapped into US research grants including an Advanced Technology Program (ATP) award back in 2002. More recently it inked a contract with Sun Microsystems and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop chip-to-chip and intra-chip optical interconnect technology for high-performance computer systems.
The firm's products currently include an active optical cable which allows data transmission of up to 40 Gbit/s; future products will target HDMI, an optical interface used for connecting high-definition TVs.
Fortune favours the funded
Just how bad is the funding situation for optics companies? Out of curiosity we compiled a list of firms that have received funding in the last six months — it's not a very long list:
- QD Laser, a developer of quantum-dot lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) for telecoms applications, raised JPY 700 million last month (see QD Laser secures JPY 700 million in funding and Start-up spotlight: QD Laser).
- Firecomms, which makes transmitters and receivers for transmission over plastic optical fibre, has closed a $5 million funding round that includes a significant investment from Switzerland's incumbent operator Swisscom (see Swisscom invests in Firecomms' RCLED-based home network technology).
- In December 2008, ROADM subsystems maker Nistica raised additional $4 million in debt and equity financing, including an investment from Fujikura (see Nistica raises $4m in additional financing).
- German firm Aifotec, which manufactures integrated photonic components, banked an investment of €1 million in November 2008 (see Aifotec GmbH secures a new investor).
- BTI Systems, a Canadian developer of packet optical network edge and access solutions, secured $15 million, also in November 2008 (see BTI Systems secures $15 m in financing for strong global growth).
It's worth noting that Bristol, UK-based chip maker Nanotech Semiconductor, network processor vendor Xelerated, and multiwavelength laser developer Innolume also managed to bag funding in August 2008, just before the banking crisis erupted.
Did we miss anyone? Please let us know.