Covega Closing In on $10MCovega Closing In on $10M

Hoping to ride this year's surge in tunable laser sales, Covega is picking up more cash from investors

Craig Matsumoto, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

May 10, 2006

2 Min Read
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It's looking like a good time to be into Tunable Lasers, as components firm Covega Corp. is wrapping up a $10 million round of funding amid talk that the market is surging.

Like laser vendor Apogee Photonics Inc. , Covega was created from the merger of two small players: Codeon and Quantum Photonics, back in 2003. (See Codeon, Quantum Form Covega and ASIP, T-Networks Reach Apogee.) The latest funding round comes primarily from prior investors in those two firms: Core Capital Partners , Intersouth Partners , OCG Ventures LLC , and Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) , CEO Joseph Dixon tells Light Reading.

Both born during the optical bubble, Codeon and Quantum Photonics raised more than $100 million combined and picked up another $17 million upon merging.

Covega employs more than 100 and does its own manufacturing in Maryland, but the company has begun to outsource in cases "where we have extremely large volumes," Dixon says.

Covega makes a variety of components related to transceivers and DWDM modules, but its marquee product is a gain block, the main part of a tunable laser. Covega shipped about 15,000 of them last year and expects to ship four to five times that many this year.

Tunable lasers seem to finally be coming into their own, as multiple companies are saying there's a shortage of the parts this year. "For the first time in four-and-a-half years in this industry, I'm capacity limited," Dixon says.

The shortage of tunables was a hot topic at the OFC/NFOEC conference in March, where laser vendor Santur Corp. hinted that it's considering an IPO. More recently, Bookham Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM; London: BHM) noted the tunables shortage during its earnings call -- a key point, considering the company plays up tunable lasers as a cornerstone of its future. (See OFC: Optics & IPOs and Bookham Trims Again.)

"Last year, there were something like 17,000 or 18,000 widely tunable lasers shipped. This year, we're hearing numbers like 50,000 to 75,000," says Ben Sitler, CEO of Paxera -- a tunable laser startup that's looking to raise a funding round, too. The company also offers silicon optical amplifiers and lithium niobate (LiNbO3) modulators. Customers include Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN) and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE).

About two thirds of Covega's revenues come from telecom, but like most other components firms, the company has broadened into some steadier markets -- specifically medical, defense, and scientific instrumentation. (See Valley Wonk: Optical's Options.) The latter "doesn't grow, but it's highly profitable," says Dan Petrescu, Covega's president and chief sales officer.

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading

About the Author

Craig Matsumoto

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Yes, THAT Craig Matsumoto – who used to be at Light Reading from 2002 until 2013 and then went away and did other stuff and now HE'S BACK! As Editor-in-Chief. Go Craig!!

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