OCTOBER 16, 2007 By Stephen Hardy -- Mintera Corp. (search for Mintera), which has made a name for itself in the 40-Gbit/sec transmission arena, has raised a $19 million Series C round of venture capital financing. While the round was co-led by investors Polaris Venture Partners and RRE Ventures, perhaps the most significant aspect was the participation of the company's new partner, JDSU (search for JDSU).
Existing investors, including Court Square Ventures, Star Ventures, and Portview Communications Partners, also participated. The company now has raised a total of $73.6 million according to Niall Robinson, vice president of product marketing at the company.
The amount of JDSU's investment was not disclosed. The two companies simultaneously announced a co-development partnership, the first results of which will be a 300-pin transponder based on Mintera's adaptive differential phase-shift keying (ADPSK) modulation technology. (See story.)
Mintera says it will use the new funds in the commercial launch of the new transponder, which will be based on a design Mintera already had in the works; both companies will market the product. Mintera also plans to release new features for its MI 40000XS platform announced this past February. Contacted by email, Robinson declined to reveal what those new features might be, saying that, when it comes to upcoming technology developments, he'd prefer the focus be on the company's work with JDSU. In an earlier phone briefing, he did say that it was reasonable to assume that Mintera might leverage anything jointly developed with JDSU for its own products.
Mintera also plans to use some of the new money to finance its aspirations at higher bit rates, such as 100 Gbits/sec.
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