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For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Barry Weinbaum
CEO & President, NanoOpto
Phone: +1 (732) 627-0808
Media Contact: Frank Hasner
Franklin Township
Phone: +1 (732) 873-2500 x235

NanoOpto Breaks Ground on Somerset Facility

Somerset, New Jersey. September 10, 2001. NanoOpto Corp., which is applying proprietary nano-optics and nano-manufacturing technology to design and make components for optical networking, announced today that it has closed a $16-million Series “A” round of venture financing. The funding comes from four venture capital firms; Bessemer Venture Partners, Morgenthaler, New Enterprise Associates, and U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC. Bessemer and Morgenthaler led the round. Bessemer Managing Partner Rob Soni and Bessemer Partner Glenn Falcao assume board seats along with two Morgenthaler Ventures general partners, Greg Blonder and Gary Shaffer.

NanoOpto Corp., a manufacturer of optical communications sub-components, unveiled plans for construction of its manufacturing facility at its 36,000 s.f. location in Somerset, New Jersey at a groundbreaking ceremony today. After the completion of construction, the building will include clean rooms, laboratories and additional offices that will enable NanoOpto and its customers to realize the dream of optical communication components on a chip by design of highly innovative “sub-wavelength” optical sub-components with features smaller than the wavelength of light. The products developed and manufactured by NanoOpto will ultimately find their way into Optical Transport Systems. These systems, when deployed by Service Providers, enable voice, data and video calls to be transported in extremely large volumes and at great speeds over short or long distances. The NanoOpto facility is located at 1600 Cottontail Lane in the Somerset section of Franklin Township.

According to NanoOpto CEO and President Barry Weinbaum, the Franklin Township site is “uniquely suited for our needs due to its location between Princeton and Rutgers Universities”. Mr. Weinbaum also finds Franklin Township “very suitable for high-tech startups due to the availability of a large population of highly qualified technical personnel in the area”. The technology used by NanoOpto has been developed under the leadership of Prof. Stephen Y. Chou, a renowned figure in the area of nano-engineering as well as a Founder and Chairman of the Board of NanoOpto.

Mayor John Clyde and several additional Town Council members were on hand to assist in the groundbreaking. According to Mayor Clyde, “the location of NanoOpto adds to the growing list of high tech industries in our township. We have been actively pursuing this type of high technology business that will deliver jobs, tax revenues and prestige to our community.”

According to Sheo Khetan, NanoOpto’s VP of Operations, this groundbreaking starts the process of demolition of some existing structures necessary to complete the construction. Mr. Khetan expects full construction to start in the next few weeks as the township completes review of NanoOpto’s plans and provides the necessary additional permits. NanoOpto plans to complete the project in the next four months and start production of their SOE (Subwavelength Optical Element) products shortly thereafter.

About NanoOpto Corporation
NanoOpto was founded in February 2001 and its investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. NanoOpto brings revolution to optical communication components through nano-engineering. Its products offer new functionality, better performance, small size and easy assembly.