PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Advent International, a leading international private equity firm, today announced that it has led a US$12 million Series A financing for Redfern Integrated Optics, an Australian manufacturer of optical telecommunications components. Tallwood Venture Capital, TMT Ventures (a joint venture between Advent and Direct Capital in Australia and New Zealand) and the original investor, Redfern Photonics Pty. Ltd., also participated in the round.

Redfern Integrated Optics, a spinout of Redfern Photonics, specializes in the fabrication of silica-on-silicon-based planar waveguide structures and devices for a variety of commercial applications. The company employs a proprietary fabrication method that allows integration of photonics and electronics into a single, readily manufacturable monolithic device.

"Manufacturing is probably the single largest challenge of the optical components industry," said Greg Smitherman, a Partner in Advent's Palo Alto office. "While many companies are working on solutions to various parts of this problem, technologies that can revolutionize the manufacturing of optical components are scarce. Redfern Integrated Optics has a rare ability to completely change the cost structure of optical systems and therefore the underlying price of bandwidth."

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