Optical Gear Makers ShineOptical Gear Makers Shine

Optical networking equipment makers, particularly those developing gear for metropolitan-area data networks, keep pulling in venture-capital funds. Alvesta drew $12 million in third-round funding last week, Opthos garnered $21.6 million in its second round, and Sphera Optical Networks attracted a third round of $25 million.

Venture capitalists are counting on service providers and businesses looking for low-cost, high-bandwidth switching and transport capabilities to buy the offerings of optical-equipment vendors.

Alvesta, in Sunnyvale, Calif., makes optical transport equipment used in telecom switching offices, business data centers, and storage networks. Opthos, in San Carlos, Calif., says its offerings will perform signaling, network-management, performance-monitoring, and service restoration in core metropolitan-area optical networks. Sphera Optical, in Edison, N.J., makes metropolitan-area optical transport equipment that increases the capacity of optical networks.