Comlase Receives Series A Financing from European Equity Partners and InnovationsKapital

Comlase Receives Series A Financing from European Equity Partners and InnovationsKapital Stockholm, Sweden, May 16 2001 Comlase AB, a start-up company in Stockholm, Sweden, which will develop, manufacture and market active components for fiber-optics networks, today announced that it has received series A financing of $ 3,5 million from venture capital firms European Equity Partners (EEP) and InnovationsKapital. Comlase was founded in early 2001 to develop pump laser chips and modules. These lasers are placed at the heart of modern fiber-optics networks and enable the amplification of optical communications signals. The ever-increasing amount of Internet and data traffic worldwide will continue to drive the growth in network transmission capacity and the corresponding need for signal amplification. "We are very pleased to be working with InnovationsKapital and EEP", says Carsten Lindström, CEO of Comlase. "They have substantial experience in the optical components sector having invested in and worked closely with companies such as Altitun, Transmode Systems and Proximion. We intend to leverage their broad network of industry contacts (suppliers, customers, investors and advisors) in order to deliver our aggressive chip and module development schedule." "According to First Union Securities, the metropolitan fiber-optics market will reach $4 billion in 2003 with an annual growth rate of about 100 %," says Robert Göthner, Partner at InnovationsKapital. "The Comlase product line will play an important role in this market." "Comlase has given us a unique opportunity to invest in the fastest growing part of the fiber-optics industry - the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)", says Hans Blomberg, Swedish founder of London-based EEP. Comlase was founded by a team of world-renowned experts in the fields of semiconductor laser technology, vacuum processing and optical amplifiers. The founders have previously held senior positions at leading-edge companies and academic institutions such as Ericsson, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Spectra Physics, Xerox PARC, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The founders combine a unique set of complementary skills including comprehensive research, production, marketing and entrepreneurial experience to form a strong company core. Long-term support agreements with the research institute ACREO and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm will also give the company access to important development resources right from the start. "We have a great team with formidable industrial know-how, a majority of them holding Ph. D. degrees in their respective fields. The average staff experience across the Comlase team in researching, developing and marketing semiconductor lasers and optical amplifiers is over 10 years. This taken together with our new patent pending technology gives us extremely good chances of meeting and exceeding our targets", says Rudolf Wiklund, Chairman of the Board of Comlase and former CEO of AGA Geotronics. The first products to be delivered by Comlase will be pump lasers generating light at a wavelength of 980 nm. These will include a cooler- less Metro pump in a compact mini-DIL or coaxial package, as well as a high-power long-haul thermo-electrically cooled pump laser in a standard butterfly package. "We believe that our technology will enable a widespread deployment of so called Amplets in the Metro area networks due to the drastic reduction of both the power consumption and the complexity of the pump laser that Comlase can deliver. Our unique technology is better suited for large-scale production than that of our competitors." says Peter Blixt, CTO of Comlase. Amplets are small form-factor optical amplifiers designed to compensate for transmission-, switching-, muxing- and demuxing losses in the network. For more information, please contact: E-mail: info@comlase.com Carsten Lindström, CEO, Comlase AB, +46-733-73 44 30 Carl Sundblad, VP, Sales & Marketing, Comlase AB, +46-733-73 44 33 Comlase is a start-up company in Stockholm, Sweden, which develops, produces and markets active optical components for fiber-optic networks. The first products from Comlase will be pump laser chips and modules for optical amplifiers. These are placed at the heart of modern fiber-optic networks and enable the amplification of optical communication signals. The need for such amplification grows continuously, as transmission capacity increases and systems become more complex. Comlase was founded in January of 2001 by a team of experts with backgrounds in development, production and marketing of optical components. The founders have previously held senior positions at leading-edge companies and academic institutions such as Ericsson, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Spectra Physics, Xerox PARC, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Web site: www.comlase.com. EEP is a E53 million fund targeting first round investments in Nordic technology and growth companies. EEP provides capital and active hands- on management support to enable entrepreneurial companies to achieve their development plans and international presence, and often co-invests with local venture funds. EEP's investment team brings the experience of seasoned management professionals with both operational and investment skills. Investors in the EEP fund include Swiss fund-of-funds Partners Group, institutional investors from Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden and a range of high profile family investors from Europe and the US. Web site: www.eeplp.com. InnovationsKapital was founded in 1994 and is one of Sweden's leading venture capital firms for innovative early stage growth companies. The business, carried out from offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm, is focused on investments within ICT and HealthCare & Life Sciences, dynamic sectors that are rapidly expanding and where Nordic research plays a leading role. The capital (E193 million) is managed in three funds and is provided by highly reputable Swedish and international institutional investors. Web site: www.innkap.se. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/05/16/20010516BIT01160/bit0002.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/05/16/20010516BIT01160/bit0002.pdf