Lambda Optical adds $22M to B-round funds

All-optical networking equipment vendor Lambda Optical Systems today announced a $22 million addition to the $14 million "series-B" round the company first announced in April 2004.

The latest round, which the company is referring to as a "B-1" round since most aspects of the valuation and investment were unchanged from the April B round, brings the total investment in the company to $46 million.

The vendor will use its new funds to boost its sales and marketing efforts, including adding new sales and marketing personnel to its current work force of about 56 people, most of whom are engineers.

"The company has essentially been in stealth mode for a long time," said Irfan Ali, Lambda Optical’s chief executive officer since August. "We’ve got a generic Web site. We’ve selectively done a few announcements. But for the most part, the company’s been in stealth mode. We’ll now use this opportunity to come out more aggressively and let the market see what we have."

Lambda Optical uses microelectrical mechanical systems (commonly referred to as MEMS) to bring all-optical switching to regional and metro networks instead of its typical place in long-haul networks. The company was founded in 2003 from the intellectual property of a defunct start-up called Firstwave Secure Intelligent Optical Networks.

The company’s latest $22 million came from existing investors Sevin Rosen Funds and ComVentures as well as two new investors that are merging together: PacRim Venture Partners and SmartForest Ventures.

Pac Rim’s expertise in Asia made it a good match for Lambda Optical’s strategy, Ali said, which includes targeting Asian markets as well as those in Europe, the Middle East and North America. "Our conclusion is that Asia--with markets like Japan, China and Korea--could be key markets for us and subsequently maybe even India," he said.