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Holochip Backers Invest $2.7M

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Dec. 18, 2007 -- Holochip Corp., a maker of adaptive polymer lenses (APLs) with tunable focal lengths, announced that its funding round raised $2.7 million, led by venture capital firm ITU Ventures of Los Angeles.

Holochip said the funds raised by the series A round will allow it to expand its product and market development activities, primarily in the US and Japan.

Holochip was founded in 2004 with initial funding from ITU Ventures and the investment group New Mexico Angels, among others. Its APLs allow focal length to be adjusted without changing the location of the lens, which allows zoom lens to be made small enough to fit into cell phone cameras and other mobile devices. The company licensed adaptive lens technology last summer from the University of Central Florida (See Pact Zooms in on Lenses).

Holochip's first product, a specialty APL for optical research and engineering applications, was introduced at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) 2007 in May.

Albuquerque-based Holochip also said it received a strategic investment from trading and technology company Itochu Corp. of Japan and the companies have formed a partnership for fabricating and selling Holochip's APL products in that country. Holochip said the partnership will help it to improve the image quality of its lenses and reduce the size and weight of cameras incorporating its APLs. Itochu's subsidiaries include businesses focused in the telecommunications, technology, aerospace and electronics industries.

"Our strategy is to bring new growth opportunities to promising companies and to help them develop an Asian market strategy, and this is one of the most important deals that Itochu has made in this area in quite some time," said Hiroo Inoue, Itochu's managing executive officer.

"With this investment and partnership, Itochu has clearly shown their confidence in Holochip's adaptive lens solutions," said Robert G. Batchko, PhD, president and CEO of Holochip. "The investment also highlights their belief that Holochip's APL technology has significant market potential for camera, cellular phone and optics manufacturers. We feel very fortunate to have Itochu as a partner and strongly believe that the combination of our APLs their authority in the marketplace will provide significant value to customers in Japan and around the world."

For more information, visit: www.holochip.com
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Published: December 2007
Glossary
focal length
The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or film when the lens is focused at infinity. In simple terms, it is the distance from the lens to the point where parallel rays of light converge or appear to diverge after passing through the lens. For converging lenses (convex lenses), which are thicker in the center, the focal length is considered positive. For diverging lenses (concave lenses), which are thinner in the...
nano
An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
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