ThreeFive Photonics gets euro7 million in first round.

Investee Company – ThreeFive Photonics (Netherlands)

Investee Company Business Type – Developer of breakthrough opto-electronic technology

Type of Financing – Development

Equity Providers – Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund

Equity Leader (Individual) – Gerry Montanus, General Partner of Atlas Venture and Anton Arts, Director of Gilde IT Fund.

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/A

Equity Amount – euro7 million

Total Deal Value – euro7 million

Other Advisors – N/A

Comments – ThreeFive Photonics, a developer of breakthrough opto-electronic technology, has secured a euro7 million first round of financing. Venture capital investors Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund provided the funding in this round.

As part of the deal both Gerry Montanus, General Partner of Atlas Venture, and Anton Arts, Director of Gilde IT Fund, will join the Board of Directors of ThreeFive Photonics.

Founded in early 2001, ThreeFive Photonics focuses on miniaturising and integrating the functional components and devices that make up telecommunication network subsystems.

ThreeFive Photonics will use the capital for the development of next-generation optical chips, integrating complete network subsystems on a single chip. The optical chip technology should dramatically reduce costs and significantly improve the performance of telecommunications systems used by network operators worldwide.

Wouter Deelman, CEO and co-founder of ThreeFive Photonics said: “This will enable us to complete the development of our first chip, codenamed Argo, and to prepare it for production. We will have a working prototype of Argo by the end of this year. Production will start in 2002.”

Gerry Montanus, General Partner of Atlas Venture, said: “Atlas Venture sees great opportunities for ThreeFive Photonics. The market pressure to reduce the costs of telecommunication network systems is huge. We believe that ThreeFive Photonics will be able to address that need and significantly influence that part of the telecommunications industry.”