January 19, 2006 Dallas, TX -- Kailight Photonics, a provider of optical modules for optical regeneration, wavelength management, and signal conditioning, has announced the first closing of its Series B funding, with an investment of $4.5 million. The investment brings the company's total venture funding to $14.5 million, not including strategic grants from the BIRD, BRITECH, and IST projects.

According to a press release, the latest round of funding was led by new investor Hyperion Venture Partners and an unnamed strategic investor. Current investors also participating in the round included Lucent Venture Partners, the Yozma Group, Ofer Hi-Tech, Peregrine Ventures, and Plentyum. Kailight says it is in discussions with other potential investors on a scheduled second Series B round.

Kailight says the funding will be used to support the manufacturing and sales of its Tunable All-optical Signal Regenerator (TASR) product line. The company says the products can dramatically reduce network complexity and cost by delivering all-optical network transparency for wavelength conversion and signal regeneration, while also supporting advanced optical dispersion and PMD compensation. The company also plans to use the funding to launch several upcoming product offerings.

"We are very excited about Kailight's growth potential. We are also impressed with the wide variety of applications that Kailight's core technology can support," comments David Rubner, venture partner at Hyperion and former CEO of ECI Telecom.

"The continued investment by Yozma and all of the current investors reflects our confidence in Kailight's vision, unique value proposition, and leadership position in the emerging market of next-generation photonic applications," concludes Yoav Sebba, partner at the Yozma Group.