Israeli start-up ColorChip has completed a $7.2 million financing round, led by US fund Bessemer Venture Partners. Motorola Ventures, which recently invested in BroadLight, a company in the same sector as ColorChip, also invested in the round as a strategic investor. Previous investors also participated, including Walden Israel, Eurofund, and German fund PolyTechnos Venture Partners GmbH. ColorChip has raised $17 million to date, including the current round. The company develops and makes transceivers for fiber-to-the-home optical access networks.
ColorChip also borrowed $2.3 million from venture lending fund European Venture Partners (EVP), making a total of $9.5 million in capital and credit. The current round is designed to bring the company to the mass production stage (50,000 units a month), and for development of additional components.
ColorChip chairman and CEO Moshe Price said that the company had sold $250,000 worth of components in the third quarter of 2005, mostly in the US and the Far East. He added that the company was expected to reach sales of several million dollars in the current year, and reach the break-even point in the first quarter of 2007.
One of ColorChip’s founders is Syneron Medical Ltd. (Nasdaq: ELOS) and Lumenis (Nasdaq: LUME.PK) co-founder Dr. Shimon Eckhouse, who is a director. According to IVC Online’s database, ColorChip is one of eight start-ups founded by Eckhouse. "Globes" recently reported that Edge Medical Devices, founded by Eckhouse, had closed down.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 11, 2006