Google, Lightspeed-backed InnoLight files for US IPO

The company, which is also backed by Lightspeed China Partners, Oriza Holdings, and Suzhou Cowin Venture Capital Investment Management, did not indicate in its filing how many shares would be sold in the offering or at what price.

InnoLight makes high-speed optical transceivers that connect computer servers by converting electrical signals into optical signals - for transport through fiber-optic cables - and back again on reaching the destination. The fastest commercially viable speed for data center networks is 40 gigabits per second (40G), and InnoLight is the global market leader in this space, with a 37% share based on 2014 revenue.

The company is developing products for the 100 gigabit-per-second data centers, which are expected to surpass the 40G market by 2016. The Cisco Global Cloud Index projects that cloud-based internet traffic will see compound annual growth of 32% between 2013 and 2018, due to increased mobile usage, the adoption of high bandwidth mobile networking, and the proliferation of rich media content.

In turn, global sales volume for 40G or faster optical transceivers for use in cloud data centers is expected to grow from $376 million in 2014 to $2.25 billion in 2019, according to LightCounting, an independent market research company.

InnoLight's customers include Google and Arista in the US and ZTE Corp. and H3C Technologies in China. Google is the company's single largest customer, accounting for the majority of revenue in 2014, while ZTE is the second-largest customer. Speaking to AVCJ last year, James Mi, managing director at Lightspeed, described InnoLight as "a Chinese company that has developed world-class technologies and made it successful globally."

Founded in 2008 and based in Suzhou, InnoLight received initial funding from Acorn Ventures, Suma Ventures and China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Ventures (now known as Oriza Holdings), among others, over a two-year period. Cowin participated in a Series B round worth around $11.2 million in 2012.

Last September, Google Capital and Lightspeed co-led a $38 million Series C round. Google Capital, which launched a $300 million growth-stage VC fund in 2014, contributed approximately $25 million with Lightspeed putting in the rest. Google Capital has a 20.2% stake, with Lightspeed on 10.5%, Cowin on 10.6%, Acorn on 6.6%, and Oriza on 6.5%.

InnoLight generated revenue of $121.5 million in 2014, up from $71.8 million the previous year. The company turned profitable in 2013, recording a net income of $7.9 million that year and $11.3 million the following year.

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• Topics
• Technology
• Exits
• Greater China
• Technology
• Exit
• IPO
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Google
• Cowin Capital
• China