Pre-seed funding allows Arbor Photonics to add employees, create tech demonstrations

Another $250,000 of state start-up money has found its way into the pockets of Arbor Photonics.The Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund made a cash infusion that will allow Arbor Photonics to hire a vice president of engineering in February or March and continue its development of early technology demonstrations.The University of Michigan spin-off is developing a 3C optical fiber laser for the manufacturing sector. U-M Prof. Almantas Galvanauskas invented the technology that is expected to dramatically improve fiber lasers. The technology is an optical fiber structure called Chirally-Coupled Core Fiber or 3C fiber. The 3C fiber significantly improves the performance of fiber lasers in industrial manufacturing, a $2 billion market that grows about 14 percent annually on average.The company plans to make the product available by 2010 and hopes to hit $50 million in sales within the next six years.Arbor Photonics also recently received $3 million, half of which came from Michigan’s 21st Century Jobs Fund. Those funds are expected to create another 136 jobs at Arbor Photonics within a few years, a huge jump for firm that only employs a handful of people right now.Source: Phillip Amaya, CEO of Arbor PhotonicsWriter: Jon Zemke