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Press
Release
August 22, 2002 - Wave7 Optics Closes $15.5 Million Third Round of Financing Led
by Oak Investment Partners
Company’s Optical Access Equipment Addresses ‘Last Mile’ of
Broadband Internet Connectivity for Fiber-to-the-Home and Business Markets
Alpharetta, GA—August 21, 2002: Wave7 Optics, Inc., a leading developer of
optical access equipment for the fiber-to-the-home and business (FTTX) market,
today announced that is has raised a third round of funding totaling $15.5
million, bringing the company’s total funds raised to $47.5 million. Oak
Investment Partners led the Series C round, while all prior investors,
Morgenthaler Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Lucent Venture Partners,
Mellon Ventures, and Armada Venture Group also participated in the round.
Additionally, Dave Walrod, general partner of Oak Investment Partners, will join
the Wave7 board of directors.
Wave7 Optics has successfully developed and deployed a high-bandwidth,
dynamically provisionable, optical access system to address the “last mile” of
broadband Internet connectivity. Wave7’s suite of optical access products, the
Last Mile LinkTM, serves residential, business and MDU subscribers with
unprecedented bandwidth flexibility to provide the triple play of video, voice,
and data.
“We are very excited to bring Oak Investment Partners into the Wave7 Optics
team, and the continued participation of our existing partners at Morgenthaler,
Advanced Technology Ventures, Lucent Venture Partners, Mellon Ventures, and
Armada Venture Partners is a very solid endorsement of our technical approach
and progress with customers,” said Thomas Tighe, Wave7 CEO and president. “This
new round of funding will enable Wave7 to expand the market base of its recently
introduced Last Mile Link suite of optical access products and scale production
accordingly.”
The Last Mile Link architecture is standards-based, cost-competitive with
current HFC implementations, and includes industry-leading Quality-of-Service (QoS)
and security mechanisms for enhanced features. The solution overcomes the high
fiber counts, limited distance range and high equipment costs of competing FTTX
solutions, such as passive optical networks (PONs).
“Wave7’s architecture allows home, business, and MDU users to finally realize
the full advantages of optical access,” said Dave Walrod, general partner, Oak
Investment Partners. “We’ve observed the success the company has achieved in
their product development and customer acceptance of their products and are
delighted to be part of this emerging leader in optical access.”
Wave7 Optics’ Last Mile Link advanced optical access system provides video (CATV
and digital, including IP streaming), high-speed data and telephony services
(IP-based or circuit-based) to subscribers with dedicated and on-demand
symmetrical data rates of up to 500 Mb/sec/subscriber, using standards-based
Gigabit Ethernet on single fiber.
"FTTX used to be thought of as the technology of the future," notes Robert
(Robin) Bellas, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures and one of Wave7's
founding investors. "But Wave7's experienced and talented management team
recognized the opportunity, and shaped the FTTX system specifications to meet
emerging customer needs. The opportunity is now, and Wave7 is beginning to see
the impact in the marketplace."
About Wave7 Optics
Wave7 Optics, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Alpharetta,
Georgia, is a technology developer dedicated to the creation of a
fiber-to-the-home and -business (FTTX) optical access system for video,
high-speed data and telephony signals that resolves the “last mile” bandwidth
dilemma. The Wave7 Optics network architecture effectively overcomes traditional
cost and implementation barriers to FTTX-based solutions using a combination of
innovative technology and creative applications of existing technologies.
Additional information about Wave7 Optics is available on the web at
www.wave7optics.com.
About Oak Investment Partners
Oak Investment Partners, founded in 1978, is one of the oldest and largest
venture capital firms, funding high-growth entrepreneurial ventures while
assisting and guiding them to industry leadership. Oak has raised ten venture
capital partnerships with a total of $4.2 billion in committed capital. Oak has
sponsored over 350 companies with aggregate annual revenues in excess of $100
billion. Oak’s most recent fund, Oak X, was closed on February 28, 2001 with a
total capitalization of $1.6 billion, and will be put to work financing the
global information economy
About Advanced Technology Ventures
Founded in 1979, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) is a leading venture capital
firm whose management experience, technology expertise, global network of
industry contacts and collaborative style has helped more than 120 companies
navigate from inception to IPO and beyond. With approximately $1.5 billion of
committed capital, its portfolio includes investments in the areas of
communications, Internet infrastructure, software and services, and healthcare.
ATV's investment philosophy centers on collaborative, active participation with
the management teams of its portfolio companies.
About Morgenthaler Ventures
Morgenthaler Ventures, a leading venture capital and buyout firm, was founded in
1968. The firm focuses on early-stage technology investments, as well as
middle-market management buyouts. It has funded over 180 companies in its
34-year history, including two of the last decade’s highest-performing IPOs:
Microchip Technology (1993) and Premisys Communications (1995). Current
representative portfolio investments in communications include optical and
wireless components companies such as Agility Communications, NanoOpto Corp.,
and Peregrine Semiconductor, as well as systems companies such as Innovance
Networks and Caspian Networks. With its new $850-million fund raised in August
2001, the firm has a total of $1.8 billion under management. The firm’s Web
address is www.morgenthaler.com.
About Lucent Venture Partners
Lucent Venture Partners LLC. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies
with offices in Palo Alto, CA, Waltham, MA, and Murray Hill, NJ. Formed in 1998,
the group invests in early stage technology companies in high growth
communications areas such as optical, data and wireless networking,
semiconductors, communications software, professional services and e-commerce.
About Armada Venture Group
Armada Venture Group is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping
entrepreneurs build companies that change the way people work and communicate.
The firm invests in early stage investments, as well as in the mezzanine round
of financing. Armada looks to invest in promising enterprise software and
service companies. The firm holds offices in Atlanta and Zurich.
About Mellon Ventures
Mellon Ventures, Inc., an affiliate of Mellon Financial Corporation, makes
equity-related investments of between $3 million and $25 million in rapidly
growing operating companies. With offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, and
Pittsburgh, Mellon Ventures, Inc. invests at all stages of the growth cycle,
from early stage venture capital to later stage growth financings and buyouts.
Mellon Ventures currently has over $1.3 billion under management. Additional
information is available at http://www.mellonventures.com.
For more information please contact
emmanuel.vella@w7optics.com.
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