Israeli start-up OpTun has signed an agreement with German chip maker Infineon Technologies (NYSE:XETRA:IFX), under which it will take over Infineon’s Arrayed Waveguides Gratings (AWG) operations. OpTun simultaneously announced that it had completed a $9.5 million second financing round, in which Infineon, German venture capital fund Ventures Seed and existing investors had participated. OpTun has raised $19.5 million to date, including the current round.
OpTun CEO Edwin Slonim confirmed the report, adding that the company was currently negotiating with additional investors interested in participating in the round.
Under the agreement, Infineon will carry out a quasi-spin-off of its AWG business, transferring to OpTun all its AWG know-how, including patented and patent-pending technologies, plus responsibility for AWG products. In exchange, Infineon’s investment in OpTun will give it a minority holding in the company.
Among other things, AWG componentsfacilitate the multiplexing and demultiplexing of optical DWDM systems, using only optical components.
Under the agreement, Infineon will transfer 25 employees to OpTun, doubling its staff. Slonim will head the merged company. Infineon’s Munich-based AWG division will become a branch of OpTun, remaining in Germany. OpTun will use Infineon equipment, but will pay for use of Infineon’s installations.
OpTun was founded in 2000 by Prof. Meir Orenstein (who also founded Lambda Crossing), Prof. Nimrod Moiseyev and Dr. Ilya Vorobeichik. Slonim, a former Intel employee, also serves as director of DenX (ASX:DNX), which merged a few months ago with an Australian Stock Exchange shell company, and of start-ups Idioma and Diet Watch. OpTun has a development center in Haifa and a branch in Menlo Park, California.
OpTun uses the fabless model to develop router components are integrated with several components along an optical network, such as multiplexers, demultiplexers and attenuators. OpTun aims to build components based solely on optical hardware, without electronic components, thereby lowering costs and boosting the components’ speed.
OpTun earlier raised $10 million, including $8 million exactly a year ago. Investors include Delta Ventures, which invested $2 million at the seed stage in September 2000 and $3 million in the latest round; and Benchmark Capital’s Israeli branch, which led the latest round with a $5 million, investment. OpTun also has a credit line from Lighthouse Capital, for an unknown amount, designated for the purchase of equipment.
Slonim said the great advantage of the Infineon deal was that it enabled OpTun to jointly sell products with Infineon, which will speed up OpTun’s marketing activities. Infineon has numerous finished products based on AWG technology, including multiplexers and demultiplexers.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 24, 2002