EEP and InnovationsKapital back Comlase

Investee Company – Comlase AB (Sweden)

Investee Company Business Type – Develops, manufactures and markets active components for fiber-optics networks

Type of Financing – Start up

Equity Providers – European Equity Partners, InnovationsKapital

Equity Leader (Individual) – Hans Blomberg, European Equity Partners

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/A

Equity Amount – $3.5 million (euro3.9 million)

Total Deal Value – $3.5 million (euro3.9 million)

Other Advisors – N/A

Comments – Comlase, a Swedish start-up that will provide active components for the fiber-optics networks, has received a series A financing of $3.5 million (euro3.9 million). The round was backed by the euro53 million venture capital fund European Equity Partners, and Swedish venture capital firm InnovationsKapital, which currently manages euro193 million within its three funds.

Comlase was founded in January 2001 to develop pump laser chips and modules. The development of these lasers is for their implementation at the heart of modern fiber-optic networks and to enable the amplification of optical communications signals. The growing volume of Internet traffic worldwide is set to inaugurate growth in network transmission capacity and the corresponding need for signal amplification.

The company is led by a group of industry experts who have held senior positions at companies and academic institutions such as Ericsson, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Spectra Physics, Xerox PARC, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The average experience across the team in researching, developing and marketing semiconductor lasers and optical amplifiers is over ten years. The company has also fostered agreements with the research institute ACREO, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in terms of accessing development resources.

The first products to be delivered by Comlase will be pump lasers generating light at a wavelength of 980 mn. “Our unique technology is better suited for large-scale production than that of our competitors.” Says Peter Blixt, CTO of Comlase.

“According to First Union Securities, the metropolitan fiber-optics market will reach $4 billion in 2003 with an annual growth rate of about 100%,” says Robert Gothner, partner at InnovationsKapital. “The Comlase product line will play an important role in this market.”