Princeton Optronics raises $25 million

Optical component maker Princeton Optronics announced Monday that it has raised $25 million for its second round of funding led by Investor Growth Capital and St. Paul Venture Capital. Technology Venture Partners also pitched in for the second round along with Intel Capital and Novak Biddle, which also made up the $5 million first round. Princeton Optronics began making radio microwave equipment and doing government sponsored research in 1993 under the name of Princeton Electronic Systems and posted revenue of $4.2 million in 2000. The company changed its name to Princeton Optronics last year and began to focus on developing tunable lasers for telecom equipment. Carriers use lasers to transmit information in light form down glass wires. Tunable lasers can give carriers more ways to send that data as opposed to other lasers than can only work at a fixed frequency or color. The company aims to target equipment makers that send data over long-haul networks, or networks that run across the country between cities, and expects to start shipping its laser product in the first quarter of 2002.