ASIP Banks $16M

SOMERSET, N.J. -- ASIP, Inc., an emerging leader in the development of photonic integrated circuits for next-generation optical systems, today announced it has raised $16 million in the initial installment of its Series C financing round. ASIP will use the proceeds of this financing to enable the fulfillment of customer commitments, to further development of its manufacturing infrastructure and to continue product innovation.

Nokia Venture Partners led the Series C round and was joined by other new investors, Finaventures and Intel Capital, as well as original investor, Redpoint Ventures. This brings the total equity investment in ASIP to $23.5 million. Redpoint Ventures and Multilink Corp. provided the Series A and B investments totaling $7.5 million, which were announced in July 2000.

"ASIP stands out in the industry as a company with a technology platform perfectly suited to achieving the vision of low-cost optical networking," said Jonathan Ebinger, general partner at Nokia Venture Partners. "In addition, ASIP is already delivering world-class products to several of the leading providers of next-generation transceivers. ASIP is truly a company for the future."

"In this extremely challenging fundraising environment, we are both proud and gratified to be funded by such a distinguished group of investors. With this funding, ASIP will accelerate the momentum we've been gaining because of the strategic value of our technology, the careful product choices we have made and the Tier-1 customer design wins we have secured," said Mike Decelle, ASIP president and CEO. "Only a small handful of optical component companies have received additional financing in the last two years, and we are anxious to use this investment to accelerate product development and achieve a leadership position in the industry."

Brad Jones, founding partner at Redpoint Ventures, said, "Redpoint is a long-term supporter of ASIP. We have a clear vision of ASIP's potential and we're pleased to welcome Finaventures, Intel and Nokia Venture Partners to the investment team."

ASIP is supplying high-speed, integrated lasers to leading companies developing the next-generation of small form-factor transceivers such as XFP, X2 and XPAK. All of ASIP's products are built on its patented Asymmetric TwinGuide(TM) (ATG) technology platform. ATG is a major advance in optical integration technology and enables significant improvements in the density, cost, and design cycle of photonic integrated circuits.

ASIP Inc.