Privately held Israeli company ColorChip has raised $20 million in growth funding led by HGL Capital, to ramp up operations and accelerate development of its optical transceiver product roadmap.
HGL Capital led the round with contributions also from Gemini Israel Funds, BRM Group, Israel Growth Partners (IGP), Vintage Investment Partners, and Viola Credit.
The funding follows soon after the previous round of $25 million announced in November 2015 (see ColorChip lands $25M in growth funding). Overall the company has raised $45 million in the past year and $80 million since I was founded in 2001.
The company is targeting the high-speed datacom transceiver market, which is predicted to reach $1.7 billion by 2019. ColorChip is in the process of scaling up its operations, including hiring new employees in Israel, the US, and other sites. The new funding will directly support these efforts.
The company introduced 100G PSM4 QSFP28 transceiver at OFC 2016 in Anaheim, in addition to its 100G CWDM4/CLR4 QSFP28 and 40GBase-LR4 QSFP+ modules. The product roadmap will address 200G, 400G speeds and beyond.
ColorChip has developed its unique SystemOnGlass technology, which uses glass as the platform on which to build hybrid optical integrated circuits. Like silicon photonics, the aim is to eliminate free-space optics and bring the economies of mass production to the optics environment. The company operates its own fabrication facility.
‘ColorChip is delighted with its current funding round,’ said ColorChip CEO, Yigal Ezra. ‘We have so much support and confidence from our investors and are going to utilize the funds to recruit additional employees as well as scale up our operations to better serve the growing demands of the datacom market.’
