Israeli optical communications developer ColorChip has raised $25 million in a financing round led by Israel Growth Partners with participation from Vintage Investment Partners, and existing investors Gemini Israeli Funds and BRM Group. IGP General Partner Haim Shani will be joining the ColorChip's board of directors.
Founded in 2001 by Dr. Shimon Eckhouse and Prof. Shlomo Rushin of Tel Aviv University School of Engineering and based in Yokneam near Haifa, to date, the company has raised $60 million with Gemini and BRM leading the previous rounds.
ColorChip provides cost effective, dense, hyper-scale transceivers and advanced optical splitters. The latest funding will be used to scale up operations and accelerate product development.
With Internet services becoming more data intensive due to streaming HD video, virtual reality, cloud computing, and IoT devices, there is a growing need for new technologies to help data-centers manage all of the exponentially growing traffic. ColorChip’s innovative optical communication solutions are well positioned to help solve the growing bandwidth demand of the web.
ColorChip CEO Yigal Ezra said, “ColorChip is currently in high-growth mode, with production expected to increase 15 times in the next 24 months. We are already serving top-tier customers in the US and China, and this new funding will support our efforts to scale further and meet the accelerating demands of the market."
ColorChip has developed unique SystemOnGlass technology a hybrid optical integrated circuit. ColorChip uses glass wafers to industrialize its optical devices, allowing for cost effective, rapid, and highly scalable production. In essence, this allows the company to bring efficiencies commonly only seen in semiconductor fabrication to the world of optical communications.
ColorChip is also unique in the Israeli landscape, since it not only develops its solutions but is also vertically integrated and manufactures its core technology in its wholly owned and operated state of the art fab in Israel. The fab utilizes the company’s unique IP and is a critical component of its core technology, positioning the company as a leader in the industrialized manufacture of optical assemblies.
IGP cofounder and general partner Haim Shani said, “We believe that ColorChip’s unique inter-disciplinary optical and networking technology addresses a major pain in an industry that is experiencing exploding bandwidth and speed demands and is looking for breakthrough innovations. IGP believes that ColorChip’s technology provides a unique opportunity to better serve the growing demands of the Datacom market and this round will enable the company to scale its operations to meet those demands."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 22, 2015
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