Deutsche Telekom gets in on optical chip startup

LONDON – German telecommunications operator Deutsche Telekom has joined Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks in investing in Skorpios Technologies Inc., a 2009 startup developing silicon photonic technology.

Skorpios (Albuquerque, NM) has announced that T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom's venture capital arm, has provided $2 million in a follow-on addition to a $19 million Series B round of financing Skorpios said it had closed in September 2011.

Investors in the first part of the Series B round were Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and other unnamed communications companies along with previous investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital.

"We are delighted to welcome Deutsche Telekom to the investment syndicate," said Stephen Krasulick, president and CEO of Skorpios Technologies, in a statement. "The support of global carriers, such as Deutsche Telekom, in addition to major equipment companies and systems integrators, validates the market need for Skorpios' differentiating component technology. Our platform is a key enabler to reducing costs and improving performance in next-generation optical communications equipment."

Skorpios, along with an unnamed foundry partner, are working on the monolithic integration of the generation, detection and modulation of light with high-speed electronic circuits in a CMOS-compatible process known as Composite-Semiconductor-on-Insulator (C-SOI).

"The integration of today's separated building blocks into a single chip provides various important effects for our network, such as capex and opex savings at the aggregation layer and core, but also the economic enabling of new technologies that are essential to our strategy," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, director of technology at Telekom Deutschland GmbH. "We are happy to support Skorpios in the realization of this disruptive approach with the investment from T-Venture."

The $21 million in Series B funding will be used to expand Skorpios Technologies' infrastructure and complete the commercialization of its technology which is being aimed at next generation of optical networking equipment.


Related links and articles:

www.skorpiosinc.com

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