Israeli Startup Gets $8M Seed FundingIsraeli Startup Gets $8M Seed Funding

LOD, Israel -- GalayOr Networks has completed a seed round of $8 million, in the largest seed financing by an Israeli company since the beginning of the current period of uncertainty in the capital markets. GalayOr Networks develops on-chip integrated Micro Opto-Mechanical Systems (MOMS) based on a technology that was developed by its chief scientist, Dr. Dan Haronian, beginning in 1996, at which time he served as the head of the MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) group at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Haronian established GalayOr together with Noel Elman, a MEMS researcher with Cornell University and Dr. Uri Geiger, GalayOr's CEO, in late 2000.

GalayOr's core technology is an extension of integrated optics, and is based on suspended waveguides fabricated on chips, which are integrated with other optical components such as DWDM and optical amplifiers. The four basic characters of the technology are: integrating optics at the chip level, switching optical signals, integrating sensing devices for feed-back control and integrating intelligent devices for the digital processing of information. GalayOr's leading-edge technology can be used for a variety of optical solutions, including optical switching and cross-connect, OADM (add & drop), tunable DWDM, dispersion correction and intensity equalizers.

According to Dr. Geiger, "The current round of funding, especially during these turbulent times in the industry, expresses the confidence of the investor community in GalayOr's technology and management team. The company currently focuses on retaining experts in MEMS, VLSI, optics, communication, software, testing and simulation for its R&D facilities near Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel and its fabrication center in Ithaca, N.Y."

GalayOr Networks