| April
21, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALPHION CORPORATION ANNOUNCES $10.6M
INVESTMENT
Alphion Corporation Closes Third
Round of Funding to Support Expansion
of the QLight™
Family of Photonic Integrated Circuit
Products
PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ (April 21,
2005) - Alphion Corporation, a leader
in innovative
integrated components for photonic
regeneration, signal conditioning,
wavelength management,
and performance monitoring, announced
today the first closing of a third
round of funding with
an investment of $10.6M, bringing
the total company funding to $42.6M.
The second closing is
scheduled and the company is in discussions
with interested investors.
Alphion’s third round of funding
was led by Tallwood Venture Capital
with participation from
Goldman Sachs, Axiom Venture Partners,
ICCP Venture Partners, Narra Venture
Capital, and
industry executives. This funding
will be used to support the expansion
of Alphion’s QLight™
family of photonic integrated circuit
products and the ramp up of manufacturing
operations.
Dado Banatao, Managing Partner of
Tallwood Venture Capital, said “the
continued investment
by Tallwood in Alphion reflects our
confidence in the company’s
vision for the future of
photonic networking and the team’s
ability to build the business in tough
market conditions.”
Sam McKay, General Partner at Axiom
Venture Partners, added “Alphion
is emerging as a
leader in photonic integrated circuits.
We are very excited about this investment.
Alphion’s
QLight™ technology platform
addresses a broad spectrum of customer
needs and is being
deployed in a wide variety of applications.”
William Valtos Jr., Senior Managing
Director of ICCP Venture Partners
commented, “We are
very enthusiastic about Alphion’s
growth potential. The recent addition
of Alphion’s QLight™
Amp and Switch product lines to the
photonic transponder line, demonstrates
the versatility of
the QLight™ technology platform.”
“We have received extensive
validation from metro, long-haul,
CATV and defense customers,”
said Dr. Bharat P. Dave, Alphion’s
Chairman, President & Chief Executive
Officer. “This strong
endorsement from new and existing
investors demonstrates the confidence
they have in both the
Alphion team and our vision for photonic
integration. This funding will allow
us to expand our
QLight™ product family while
addressing new applications in datacom,
telecom and high
performance networking.”
The QLight™ platform is based
on breakthroughs in monolithic integration
on InP and advanced
packaging technologies. Alphion owns
rights to over 35 issued and pending
patents related to
design, fabrication and applications
of photonic integrated circuits.
ABOUT ALPHION CORPORATION
Alphion Corporation, a privately held
company, develops, manufactures and
markets integrated
photonic devices and subsystems based
on its proprietary QLight™ technology.
Alphion
products are sold into telecom, datacom,
CATV and defense system OEMs. The
QLight™
family of products is used in photonic
regeneration, signal conditioning,
wavelength
management, and performance monitoring
applications. For more information
about Alphion and
its products, visit our website www.alphion.com
ABOUT TALLWOOD VENTURE CAPITAL
Tallwood Venture Capital is a venture
capital firm focusing on semiconductors
and
semiconductor related technologies.
Tallwood raised its first institutional
fund of $180 million in
2002. Investors include Stanford University
and Harvard University.
Tallwood's practice is based on a
deep understanding of markets, the
impact technology will
have on them and a hands-on, very
active involvement post investment.
Tallwood also utilizes a
best in class team of consultants
and advisors to help build our practice
and work directly with
our portfolio companies. Our vision
is to actively help entrepreneurs
to develop and grow
technology-based start ups into world-class
companies.
For more information visit their
website, www.tallwoodvc.com
ABOUT GOLDMAN SACHS
Goldman Sachs is a leading global
investment banking, securities and
investment management
firm that provides a wide range of
services worldwide to a substantial
and diversified client base
that includes corporations, financial
institutions, governments and high
net worth individuals.
Founded in 1869, it is one of the
oldest and largest investment banking
firms. The firm is
headquartered in New York and maintains
offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo,
Hong Kong and
other major financial centers around
the world.
For more information visit their
Website, www.gs.com
ABOUT ICCP VENTURE PARTNERS
ICCP Venture Partners is an Asian-based
venture capital firm, which supports
strong
management teams who desire to build
world-class companies with leading-edge
products and
services. ICCP Venture Partners' investment
portfolio includes fab-less integrated
circuit design
firms and semiconductor-related technologies,
software, outsourced services and
manufacturing,
and traditional consumer goods and
services.
For more information visit their
website, www.iccpventurepartners.com
ABOUT NARRA VENTURE CAPITAL
Narra Venture Capital was established
in 2002 to invest in private high-technology
companies
with potential for strong growth.
Narra focuses its investments on companies
with defensible
barriers to competition, which are
normally based on cutting edge technology
or their efficient
deployment.
For more information visit their
website, www.narravc.com
About Axiom Venture Partners
L.P. Axiom Venture Partners
provides capital and strategic assistance
to rapidly growing high technology
companies. Axiom's professionals bring
substantial investing experience and
industry expertise to the venture
capital process. With over $200M in
capital under management, the firm
seeks to consider investment proposals
in two main industry areas. The first
is high technology, which includes
communications, software, Internet
infrastructure, and information technology.
Biotechnology constitutes the second
area. Through its office in Connecticut,
Axiom invests actively throughout
the United States in early or late
stage companies. For more information,
visit www.axiomventures.com
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