Skorpios Technologies, Inc. - Generation, Detection and Modulation of Light: CMOS

Skorpios Technologies, Inc. was founded in July 2009 as an optical communications company focused on revolutionizing the transceiver and subsystem supply chain to enable the delivery of truly next generation high speed infrastructure products.    

Together with their foundry partner, Skorpios designs, develops and manufactures integrated optical modules and subsystems in support of the entire opto-electronic communications ecosystem.

Skorpios’ technology allows the generation, detection and modulation of light to be monolithically integrated with high-speed electronic circuits in a standard CMOS-compatible process known as Composite-Semiconductor on Insulator (C-SOI) and is fully supported within existing standard CMOS foundry processes.

Their proven ability to offer all of these fundamental building blocks within the standard CMOS manufacturing environment is what differentiates Skorpios from other companies in this market space.

Back in November (2011) the company announced a follow-on investment to its Series B round of $19 million. The additional $2 million provided by T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom's venture capital company, brings total investment in the round to $21 million.

"We are delighted to welcome Deutsche Telekom to the investment syndicate," said Stephen Krasulick, president and CEO of Skorpios Technologies. "The support of global carriers, such as Deutsche Telekom, in addition to major equipment companies and systems integrators, validates the market need for Skorpios' differentiating component technology. Our platform is a key enabler to reducing costs and improving performance in next-generation optical communications equipment."

"The integration of today's separated building blocks into a single chip provides various important effects for our network, such as capex and opex savings at the aggregation layer and core, but also the economic enabling of new technologies that are essential to our strategy," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Director of Technology, Telekom Deutschland GmbH. "We are happy to support Skorpios in the realization of this disruptive approach with the investment from T-Venture."

The $21 million in Series B funding will be used to expand Skorpios Technologies' infrastructure and complete the commercialization of its core technology, an advanced composite semiconductor on insulator technology that will enable the next generation of optical networking equipment.

Other investors in this round include leaders in the communications networking ecosystem, along with return venture capital investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital.
www.skorpiosinc.com.


About T-Venture
T-Venture Holding GmbH was founded in 1997 as a 100% subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. Since then, T-Venture have invested in young companies that demonstrate economic and technological synergy with the business ideas of Deutsche Telekom and who also promise an above-average potential for growth. The company is based mainly in Bonn and supports and supplements the commitment of T-Venture of America Inc. in Foster City, Silicon Valley and in Seattle. Regional areas of core investment activity are in Europe, the United States of America and in Asia. Currently T-Venture manages the T-Mobile Venture Fund, the Connected Life and Work Fund, the T-Home Venture Fund, the T-Systems Venture Fund, and the T-Corporate Venture Fund.

About Cottonwood Technology Fund (CTF)

Cottonwood Technology Fund (CTF) is an early-stage technology commercialization fund with offices in El Paso, Texas, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It aims to cultivate the entrepreneurial community of the Paso del Norte region running along the Rio Grande River from Los Alamos, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. It is an area rich in resources, host to two federal labs (Los Alamos and Sandia), two medical centers (the University of New Mexico Health Services Center and the Texas Tech University Health Services Center at El Paso), and four engineering schools and research universities (UNM, UTEP, NM Tech and NM State). Collectively, they represent more than $4.0 billion in annual research across critical fields such as Bio-Sciences, New Energy, Nanotechnology, Information Technologies, CleanTech and Aerospace. CTF will work to provide venture services and capital to tech transfer opportunities having strong commercial potential. 

About Sun Mountain CapitalSun Mountain Capital is an investment partnership formed by senior private equity professionals based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Firm’s professionals have a depth of experience in private equity that dates back to 1981 and have an extensive track record of creating value through fund advisory activities and direct investments in promising companies. Prior experience for the principals include employment at Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Brentwood Associates, Fort Washington Investment Advisors, GE Capital, Kline Hawkes, and The Boston Consulting Group, among other top tier firms.