ZJF Group, a China-based maker of fibre optics, has acquired Ireland-based peer Firecomms to provide the first exit to Swisscom Ventures, Switzerland-based telecom provider Swisscom’s corporate venturing unit.
The value of the exit was undisclosed, although ZJF said it would invest €5m ($6.8m) in research and development in Ireland and expand Firecomms’ engineering team from 18 to 30 people over the next 12 months.
Swisscom Ventures was launched in 2005 and aims for strategic and financial returns.
Firecomms raised $5m in its series B round in January last year from Swisscom Ventures, Alps Electric, a global manufacturer of electronic devices, investment bank GP Bullhound’s Sidecar investment vehicle, venture capital firms Atlantic Bridge and ACT Venture Finance, and state development agency Enterprise Ireland.
Its series A closed in April 2008 at €9.6m while Firecomms was initially seed funded in 2001 by Mentor Capital, the then corporate venturing arm of Irish IT services company Mentec before its evolution into Atlantic Bridge.
Declan O’Mahoney, chief executive of Firecomms, said: "For some time now, mainland China has been our largest market. As the ZJF Group is a major global player in this sector, [the] announcement not only allows us to guarantee investment capital and job growth for the future, it also provides us with access to the world’s largest marketplace for our technology."
Xuping Zheng, chairman of ZJF, said: "Our acquisition of Firecomms is driven by the recent decision by various provincial governments to classify plastic optical fibre as a major construction focus across China.
"Delivering this infrastructure with copper cables would result in over one million tons of CO2 emissions for China and would be impossible to implement as the demand for copper would far outweigh the world’s supply. China is already the largest manufacturer of plastic optical fibre and we are combining those resources with Firecomms’ technology."
Separately, Swisscom’s collaboration with mobile equipment companies Quantenna and Netgear has led to the launch of a video over wireless internet technology, following Swisscom Ventures’ investment in Quantenna last year.