ASIP merges with ThreeFive Photonics and raises $7.5 million in additional financing
17 November 2003 Somerset, NJ Lightwave - ASIP and ThreeFive Photonics B.V., two pioneers in the development of advanced, photonic integrated circuits, today announced the completion of a merger between the two companies. The combined company will be known as ASIP with ThreeFive Photonics B.V. operating in the Netherlands as a wholly owned subsidiary of ASIP Simultaneous with the merger, ThreeFive's existing investors, Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund have made a combined $7.5 million investment in ASIP.
The new investment completes ASIP's previously announced Series C round of financing, bringing the completed round to $23.5 million. ASIP's total funding to date amounts to $31 million. Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund join existing ASIP investors Finaventures, Intel Capital, Multilink Technology (a wholly owned subsidiary of Vitesse Semiconductor ), Nokia Venture Partners, and Redpoint Ventures. The Series C investments will fund ASIP's customer shipments, further the development of its manufacturing infrastructure and enable continued product innovation.
Through this merger, ASIP customers will have access to an expanded product platform that includes critical optical building blocks, such as distributed feedback lasers, electroabsorption modulators, high-speed photodetectors, semiconductor optical amplifiers, and ultra-low-loss arrayed waveguides (AWGs). ASIP will bring these optical building blocks together using its patented, breakthrough Asymmetric TwinGuide (ATG) platform to provide customers with the lowest cost, monolithically integrated components for next-generation fiberoptic networks of all kinds.
"The merger of ASIP with our portfolio company, ThreeFive Photonics, best positions the new company to become the world leader in photonic integration," said Jeff Andrews, an investment principal at Atlas Venture. "As an investor in ThreeFive's Series A financing, we have carefully followed ASIP's progress in the market and concluded that their technology, products and team are a great complement to those of ThreeFive Photonics. This investment by Atlas Venture reflects our belief in ASIP's potential to be the industry's leading pure-play photonic integration company."
Mike Decelle will continue in his current role as president and chief executive officer of ASIP. Wouter Deelman, the former chief executive officer of ThreeFive Photonics, will serve as general manager, Europe, of ASIP, and managing director of ThreeFive Photonics B.V. Deelman and Andrews will join ASIP's board of directors.
"This merger joins two of the industry's most powerful innovators of optical integration technology," said Decelle. "ThreeFive is the acknowledged leader in the development of Indium Phosphide-based AWGs. Combining this experience with ASIP's ATG platform will enable new classes of integrated devices that will dramatically reduce the cost of building next-generation fiberoptic systems."
Deelman said, "The skills and experience of our two companies are a perfect match. ASIP has focused on selling world-class laser products to tier-one subsystems customers, while ThreeFive concentrated on highly-integrated, detector-based products that serve the leading OEM systems companies. Brought together, our new company will be well positioned to lead across a much broader set of product and market segments."