September 28, 2005 Reston, VA -- Lambda OpticalSystems, a provider of all-optical switching platforms, announced that it has received a $2 million strategic investment from Japanese technology firms Itochu Corp. and Itochu Techno-Science Corp. (CTC). Lambda also announced a strategic partnership agreement with CTC for sales, marketing, distribution, and systems integration rights in Japan.
The investment from Itochu follows a B1 financing round closed by Lambda in November 2004. Lambda says the investment will enable it to expand its product and market development activities in the U.S., Japan, and globally.
"With this investment, Itochu and CTC have clearly shown their confidence in Lambda OpticalSystems' innovative all-optical solutions," says Irfan Ali, president and CEO of Lambda OpticalSystems. "The investment also highlights their belief that Lambda's technology has significant market potential for telecommunication service providers and other networks in Japan and around the world."
"Our strategy as a company is to bring new growth opportunities to promising companies and to help them develop an Asian market strategy," adds Takashi Kameda, vice president of Venture Investment for Itochu. "Lambda OpticalSystems has a strong leadership team that has presided over the development of a truly unique solution set that can support current and future capacity and application needs. We expect this investment will assist them in their global expansion and further product development efforts."
Lambda says the goal of its strategic partnership with CTC is to market, sell, and support the company's LambdaNode and LambdaCreate products in Japan. CTC selected Lambda's products to complement its current product portfolio. The partnership is Lambda's first such agreement in Asia.
"CTC has chosen to partner with Lambda OpticalSystems because of its unique all-optical product set that will significantly enhance the infrastructure of Japanese carriers and enable them to provide the high-bandwidth, high-availability applications in demand by their customers," comments Tohru Nakano, executive senior vice president of CTC.
"Partnerships with leading solutions providers around the globe are a key element of Lambda's international growth strategy," concludes Ali. "We believe strongly that the combination of our all-optical technology and CTC's marketing and systems integration expertise will provide significant value to customers in the Japanese market."