in Tornado Insider (19/05/08)
Multiwave Photonics, a fiber-optics company based in Portugal, has secured a Series B financing round totaling €5 million. New investor FCR Espírito Santo Ventures II – a venture capital fund managed by ES Ventures – led the round. Also participating were new investor GP Sidecar, a fund associated with technology investment bank GP Bullhound, as well as existing backer Bullnet Capital. GP Bullhound also acted as Multiwave’s advisor on the deal.
Multiwave provides next-generation pulsed fiber lasers, specialty optical sources based on fiber-optic technologies, and product design, product development and engineering services. Its products target the industrial, environmental (remote sensing) and medical applications markets. The company’s lasers allow its customers to control key operating parameters through a combination of performance and control. According to the company its approach provides a higher level of flexibility and value for the customer than most currently available laser systems.
Multiwave’s pulsed fiber lasers are based on a MOPA architecture (master oscillator power amplifier) which uses Multiwave subsystems and temporal pulse shaping and gating technologies. The company offers two pulsed fiber laser product families. One is optimized for materials processing applications. The other focuses on LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and remote sensing applications, offering short optical pulses with a narrow spectral width at lower repetition rates.
The company raised its first institutional round in March 2005, when Bullnet Capital stepped in as a minority shareholder. Bullnet Capital is a Spanish venture capital fund focusing on early-stage technological investments. It manages a first fund of €18 million, with main investors being Bruno Entrecanales and the European Investment Fund. The firm is currently raising a second fund of €30 million. To date, it has invested in seven Spanish and Portuguese companies.
The proceeds from this latest round will support Multiwave’s growth strategy and global market expansion plans.
