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| Santur
Secures $23 Million in Second Round of Financing from
Leading Venture Capital Firms and Strategic Investors |
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Vertically
Integrated Provider of Tunable Laser Solutions Will Accelerate
Product Delivery and Development
FREMONT, California — June 26, 2002 —
Santur Corporation, a privately held vertically integrated
optical components company, today announced the completion
of its second round of venture financing, which netted
$23 million. Thomas Weisel Venture Partners led the round,
with all previous venture capital investors, including
Sequoia Capital and Menlo Ventures, as well as strategic
investors, contributing.
Santur will use the second-round capital to complete Telcordia
qualification of its initial product — the TL1010-C
tunable laser — as well as to accelerate product
delivery and development of its tunable laser solutions.
Founded in November 2000, Santur has introduced a radically
different, next-generation tunable transmission laser
that lacks the complexity and high cost of competing tunable
laser products. Santur's TL-1000 line of tunable lasers
provide DFB-like performance delivering high power and
excellent reliability, all at a cost comparable to present
fixed wavelength DFBs. Santur's products will help service
providers deliver high-bandwidth services with greater
network flexability and reduce total network operating
costs.
"Carriers as well as equipment vendors
are very interested in tunable components that enable
lower costs and higher flexibility for optical networks"
said Andy Sessions, partner, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners.
"Santur has a highly differentiated solution that
is cost-effective and easily manufacturable, while at
the same time offering best-in-class performance."
"Despite the difficult market for telecom, customer
interest in Santur's tunable laser products is very strong,"
said Rich Craig, CEO, Santur. "This round enables
our experienced team at Santur to deliver a tunable solution
that decreases the cost of WDM telecommunications, with
a product that provides high performance wide tunability
with no compromises."
About Thomas
Weisel Venture Partners
Thomas Weisel Venture Partners (TWVP) is an early stage
venture capital fund that invests in emerging technology
infrastructure and services companies in the high growth
communications, software and Internet sectors. The fund
is co-managed by partners, Andy Sessions and Dave Crowder.
To learn more about Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, visit
www.tweisel.com.
About Sequoia Capital
Since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture
capital for entrepreneurs who want to turn ideas into
companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs",
Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators
such as Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems,
Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Gaurav Garg of Redback
Networks, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Dan Warmenhoven
of Network Appliance, T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor,
Lou Tomasetta of Vitesse Semiconductor, Steve Jobs of
Apple Computer and Larry Ellison of Oracle. The companies
organized by Sequoia Capital now account for about 10%
of the value of NASDAQ. To learn more about Sequoia Capital,
visit www.sequoiacap.com.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures has spent the past 26 years helping visionary
leaders turn technical innovations into world-class companies.
Menlo has over $2.7 billion under management in nine venture
capital funds, and currently focuses their investments
in the areas of communications, software, Internet, semiconductors
and computer hardware. The Menlo Ventures team is a group
of investment professionals with hundreds of years of
collective experience in technology, marketing, sales
and general management. Their combined knowledge and expertise
support emerging growth companies in achieving their maximum
potential. For more information about Menlo Ventures,
visit www.menloventures.com.
About Santur Corporation
Headquartered in Fremont, California, Santur Corporation
is a vertically integrated manufacturer of high-performance
tunable lasers. Santur was founded in November 2000 and
has gathered world-class expertise in the fields of optical
device design and packaging. Founders and employees include
individuals with decades of combined experience in designing,
manufacturing, and managing high-reliability laser products
for use in the telecommunications industry. A completely
configured clean room with MOCVD capability, advanced
lithography, and thin-film tools is used to fabricate
state-of-the-art components. Santur's packaging facility
is tooled to carry out the low-cost packaging process.
For further information, contact Santur Corporation at
40931 Encyclopedia Circle, Fremont, CA 94538; or visit
the website at www.santurcorp.com.
Contacts:
Gurinder Parhar
Vice President, Business Development
Santur Corporation
Phone: (510) 933-4100 ext. 226
Fax: (510) 656-7563
E-mail: marketing@santurcorp.com
John Chester
Fourth Estate Public Relations Network
Phone: (609) 392-6938
Fax: (609) 392-6864
E-mail: jchester@fourthestatepr.com
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