International venture capital group, 3i Group plc, has invested a total of $30 million in DenseLight Semiconductors Private Limited, a Singapore-based total photonics solution provider.
The investment includes funds from the $400-million 3i Asia Pacific Technology Fund and gives 3i the largest individual shareholding in the company. Existing shareholders include DenseLight's founders, members of the management team, NTU Ventures, and employees of the company.
The investment by 3i has been made over a 15-month period, following an initial seed round investment of $1.2 million made by 3i in October 2000. Throughout this period, 3i has been working closely with DenseLight management to build up DenseLight's manufacturing capability and expand its staff to manage what is now a fully operational facility. The investment was utilized to fund this development as well as to expand DenseLight's R&D program, which has resulted in 30 patent-pending inventions. During this period, DenseLight has been in stealth mode as it finalized the commercialisation strategy for its technology and product roadmap.
DenseLight has developed 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 DensePIC technology allows it to manufacture a range of high-performance indium phosphide (InP)-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
Headquartered in Singapore, DenseLight Semiconductors provides value-added component solutions for next-generation optical networks. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.denselight.com.