26 September, 2002 -- Private equity firm Carlyle Group, and VC firm Target Partners, have led a second round of financing for Cube Optics totalling EUR10m. Cube has developed a next-gen assembly and manufacture platform, allowing mass-manufacture of miniaturised components for networks.
Seed-funded by Star Ventures and Sevin Rosen Funds, Cube Optics raised this new EUR10m financing round to extend its product range and gain further market traction. The investment is being made through Carlyle's EUR650m European venture capital fund, Carlyle Europe Venture Partners, and Target Partner's EUR112 million early stage fund based in Munich, Germany, and includes follow-on investments from existing investors Sevin Rosen Funds, STAR Ventures and several private investors.
Cube's packaging and assembly platform makes it possible to mass-produce optical devices that cost less and are up to 100 times smaller than current devices on the market. Cube can niw produce a broader range of optical components that meet all the market's usual specifications and are suitable for systems integrators to use in a wider range of situations than is currently economical.
Cube Optics' assembly and packaging platform makes use of a unique materials processing technology called Polymer Optical Bench (POB), which enables automated low cost production of a broad range of fibre optic components. The company's platform will initially be used on CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) components, which increase capacity of metropolitan access and enterprise networks, Cable TV networks and terrestrial networks for 3G telephony.
"We have been through extensive R&D and our technical solutions are unique, state-of-the-art and, most importantly, add significant value for systems vendors," said Dr. Thomas Paatzsch, CEO of Cube Optics. "This investment round will help us to really drive further product developments and enforce our international distribution strategy."
Cube Optics received its initial seed funding in the autumn of 2000.