Following Up Last Year’s $83M Take, Agility Stages $27M Series C Finale

Expanding its runway while waiting for IPO takeoff, Agility Communications Inc. is expected to announce tomorrow that it recently snagged $27 million after reopening its Series C funding round. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company had originally closed the deal with $83 million last September, but had maintained the right to add on a bit more capital under identical terms.

“With the economy the way it was, we had a bit of room left and decided to put the money in the bank while we had the opportunity,” explains Arlon Martin, vice president of marketing with Agility.

Although Martin declined to discuss valuation, Private Equity Week had previously reported that the Series C deal’s first close was marked with a $246.80 million post-money valuation. That would bring the tunable laser producer’s most recent post-money valuation in at over $273 million. Despite the increase, however, Agility has still been on a downward slope in valuation as it received a $497.4 million post-money mark when it raised a $70 million Series B deal in August of 2000.

Nissho Electronics Corp. led the most recent financing, and also signed an agreement to launch Agility products into the Japanese marketplace. Details of that partnership will also be released tomorrow. The only other large institutional investor involved in the deal was General Bank, which led a lease line tranche of approximately $5 million. Neither firm received board seats as part of the transaction.

To date, Agility Communications has raised more than $200 million from the private market. The vast majority of that capital is preferred equity, but Martin estimates that 10% has come in the form of lease lines.

Existing investors include: Alliance, Amerindo Investment Advisors, Ciena Corp., Comdisco Ventures, Dell Ventures, GM Investment Management Corp., Global Strategic Investment Fund, Granite Global Ventures, Interwest Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Mustang Ventures, Tellabs Inc., U.S. Venture Partners and Worldview Technology Partners.

The company now has enough cash to last it for over two more years, and is not planning any more private equity endeavors. Agility expects to launch a public liquidity event at some point, but is not yet in the process of lining up investment banks.