Former President of Com dev wireless trying to make it big with a new fibre optics play.
Monday August 21 5:14 PM ET
Canadian Fiber-Optic Upstart Eyes the Big Leagues
By Susan Taylor
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Powered by a recent $40 million funding round, newly named Zenastra Photonics Inc. said on Monday it plans to take on fiber-optic titans with cheaper and more powerful technology it is developing.
The 18-month old start-up, which scored Ottawa's largest-ever financing deal this spring without any sales to its name, has already attracted an optical dream team to lead the charge.
Even its company's name -- which combines Zenith, or peak, with Astra, a light-beaming star -- suggests lofty goals.
Zenastra is led by Peter Scovell, most recently COM DEV International Ltd.'s (Toronto:CDV.TO - news) wireless unit president, and formerly a director of optoelectronics and vice-president of semiconductor components at Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE:NT - news) (Toronto:NT.TO - news).
Chief operating officer Peter Brownhill was previously a vice-president at Bell Canada, while vice-president of engineering and manufacturing Terrence Caves was a director of operations at JDS Uniphase Corp. (NasdaqNM:JDSU - news) (Toronto:JDU.TO - news) and a general manager at Nortel's semiconductor operation.
The tiny company, which has 85 staff, has also linked with a string of cutting-edge labs through joint research with Ontario universities, the National Research Council, Communications Research Centre, the National Capital Institute of Technology and Photonics Research Ontario.
``We've been operating very much in stealth mode up to now,'' said Scovell. ``Now, with the new name, with the launch of our products at this trade show coming up next week, we are literally coming out of the box.''
Until now, the company kept a low profile as it developed products and forged relationships with such companies as Nortel, JDS, Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU - news) and Alcatel (CGEP.PA).
That same group of acquisition-hungry firms, known for their rapid-fire expansion push, may also have led to Zenastra's muted approach to marketing. Zenastra is planning an initial public offering late next year, depending on market conditions and takeover bids.
``We want to make sure we return value to our shareholders and it's not necessarily done by acquisitions by another company,'' Scovell said. ``That's always a danger -- one of the local newspapers...in April identified us as one of the most likely candidates to be bought before getting to IPO.''
Formerly known as Nu-Wave Photonics, a name the company said would be too hard to copyright, Zenastra may be chasing a fiber-optic pot of gold.
Burgeoning Internet traffic is driving insatiable demand for speedy fiber-optic networks and the components used in them, which help move large volumes of data and boost network capacity.
Zenastra said it has developed a production method for optical components, using standard equipment, that cuts costs in half. Its first products, to be unveiled at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference in Denver, Colorado, next week, are expected to start shipping next June.
What's more, the ``planar waveguide'' technology Zenastra has developed may also be used to integrate various functions on a single chip. That means a switch could be interconnected with a device that expands the wavelengths of light produced from a fiber, for example.
``The integration of those functions together provide very high complexities of optical processing, which frankly you can't even buy today,'' Scovell said.
``We will eventually have a box with knob that you select which wavelength you want to add or which one you want to drop, literally with a turn of the knob, and that opens up a new wave of managing networks'' |
