A TECHNOLOGY firm behind a hardware product that considerably increases data speeds has received £1.2 million in funding to help it develop and grow.
Nicholas Psaila, chief executive officer of Optoscribe, said the investment round would “significantly transform” the business.
Investment syndicate Archangels led the funding, providing £825,000. This was supported by Edinburgh venture capital firm Par Equity, who invested £325,000, and Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), which contributed £50,000.
David Ovens, chief operating officer at Archangels revealed that members were particularly impressed by Optoscribe’s potential. As a result, the fundraising round was significantly oversubscribed.
“Optoscribe is an impressive business with innovative technology that can underline Scotland’s reputation in technological development,” he said.
Livingston-based Optoscribe is an optical technology specialist, founded in 2010 as a spin-out business from Heriot Watt University.
The company is first to market with a technology used by the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon in their vast data centres.
“Our customers are huge data centres full of servers and they have very fast fibre optic connections between each server in the centre,” said Mr Psaila. “They’re looking to improve performance and reduce costs of the components. It’s putting a lot of pressure on the industry to deliver the next generation of speed, but make it cheaper.”
Robert Higginson of Par Equity said: “When [product demand is] combined with the development agreements the company has with banner names in its industry and the quality of the people involved, we are excited to play a part in the company’s future.”
Optoscribe specialises in developing and manufacturing high performance 3D light waveguides for fibre optic communications. This involves manufacturing glass components that facilitate the transfer of data through optic fibre at ultra-fast speeds. Not only are speeds increased but there is a decreased footprint and reduced assembly costs, resulting in cost effective solutions for both short and long haul communications.
Fibre networks are currently being rolled out nationwide as the Government works with providers to hit its target of providing household speeds of 24 megabits per second or more for at least 95 per cent of UK premises by 2017. But in research and development (R&D) facilities, limits are being pushed ever further.
Optoscribe’s FCX product range helps data centres achieve bandwidth of up to 400 gigabits per second (gbps), over 50 times faster than BT’s fastest domestic speed.
“In R&D, our products have helped create world records,” said Mr Psaila. “In Japan, a demonstration achieved 2.1 petabits per second (2.1 million gbps). It shows what the potential is.”
The funds will be used by Optoscribe to invest in manufacturing facilities to allow it to expand its business and capitalise on the opportunities for its technology. Mr Psaila said he planned to increase staff numbers from seven to as many as 30.
“We’re aiming to grow rapidly,” he said. “Right now we’ve got one production line which is an R&D and low volume line. The aim is to grow the company to be able to service volume using our novel manufacturing process through multiple production lines.”
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