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Press
Release
February 27, 2002 - Wave7 Optics Closes $23 Million Second Round of Financing
Led by Advanced Technology Ventures
Company’s Optical Access Equipment Addresses ‘Last Mile’ of Broadband Internet
Connectivity for Fiber-to-the-Home and Business Markets
Wave7 Optics, Inc., an innovative developer of optical access equipment for the
fiber-to-the-home and business (FTTX) market, today announced that is has raised
a second round of funding totaling $23 million, bringing the company’s total
funds raised to $32 million. Advanced Technology Ventures led the Series B round
with new investors Mellon Ventures and Armada Venture Group, while founding
investors Morgenthaler and Lucent Venture Partners also participated in the
round. Additionally, Jack Harrington, general partner of Advanced Technology
Group, will join the Wave7 board of directors.
Wave7 is developing a high-bandwidth, dynamically provisionable, optical access
system to address the “last mile” of broadband Internet connectivity, a market
projected to reach $3.8 billion by 2004. Wave7’s first suite of optical access
products, Last Mile LinkTM effectively eliminates the current cost and
implementation barriers faced by network operators in deploying
Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Fiber-to-the-Business (FTTB) solutions.
“We are very excited to bring Advanced Technology Ventures, Mellon Ventures and
Armada Ventures into the Wave7 Optics team, and the continued participation of
our existing partners at Morgenthaler and Lucent Venture Partners is a very
solid endorsement of our technical approach and our management team,” said
Thomas Tighe, Wave7 CEO and president. “This new round of funding will enable
Wave7 to move its recently introduced Last Mile Link suite of optical access
products into the market, supporting the field trial activity and full network
deployment currently underway.”
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) in new residential
applications, and the Last Mile Link architecture is ideal in business overlays.
Leading multiple system operators (MSOs) in the United States have formed
subsidiary organizations dedicated to providing voice and data services to
businesses. To date their efforts have been focused on large enterprise
customers using existing fiber backbone facilities. However, the Last Mile Link
architecture now offers an ideal means by which exploit previously untapped
revenues from medium and small enterprise customers.
“Wave7 is enabling home and business users to finally realize the full
advantages of optical access for video, high-speed data and telephony services
by addressing the core obstacles of cost and implementation,” said Jack
Harrington, general partner, Advanced Technology Ventures. “The company has very
clear and compelling advantages over others in the industry trying to address
the lucrative ‘last mile’ of communications networks.”
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. When compared to conventional DOCSIS 1.1
standards for cable modems, which offer a peak upstream data capability of 10
Mb/sec and an average of .034 Mb/sec per sub, the service enabling advantages of
the Last Mile Link are immediately compelling.
“As a founding investor, we are impressed with the rapid progress Wave7 has made
in deploying a system that can provision Gigabit Ethernet to the edge of the
metro network,” said Robert (Robin) Bellas, general partner at Morgenthaler.
“With soon-to-be announced OEM and customer contracts, Wave7 is set to capture
the major opportunities that clearly exist in the optical access market.”
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 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 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 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 Morgenthaler
Morgenthaler, 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, Lightwave Microsystems, and Peregrine
Semiconductor, as well as systems companies such as Innovance Networks and
TimesTen. 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 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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