Lance Laking, president and CEO of BTI Photonic Systems Inc. (Photo/Darren Brown)

Wireless networking equipment maker BTI Photonics Systems has raised $12 million US in its fourth funding round to drive sales and marketing.

The company said in a statement that it will use the funding to "support the expansion of its new global channel partners, the evolution of its Netstender microwavelength-division multiplexing (microWDM) platform, and growth of sales and marketing efforts."

"We've been able to both stretch the relatively small capital that our company has raised since 2001 and show market engagement and business scaling over difficult market conditions, and now we see the opportunituy to put a foot on the gas, scale the business and take advantage of our opportunities," said BTI Photonics CEO Lance Laking in an interview with the OBJ.

Mr. Laking said the company was able to attract investment because the demand for wireless networking equipment to support high-bandwidth video and mobile Internet services has led to increased interest in its products. He noted that the company's client list has increased to more than 70 from 40 or 50 at the end of last year.

"Global metro WDM spending grew nearly 40 per cent in 2006 over the prior year to nearly $2 billion, due to the explosive growth of broadband distribution and backhaul applications," said Optical Networks Ovum RHK research director Ron Kline in a statement.

Nonetheless, Mr. Laking said that the venture capital scene is still a tight one, although there is definitely more money flowing into later-stage companies such as BTI Photonics.

"A lot of the venture investors are about 180 degrees out of phase with the cycles we see in the market," he said. "The optical market is really pulling hard right now, spending on infrastructure and making investments, but private equity investors are still in the memory of the downfall cycle of the tech bubble and burst and have yet to come back."

He said this round of financing should be good news for Ottawa's tech sector, since it's "another U.S.-based investor crossing the border to make their first investment in a Canadian company."

The financing round was led by a new undisclosed private equity investor from Boston and included existing investors Vengrowth Private Equity Partners, BDC Venture Capital, GrowthWorks Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, Primaxis Technology Ventures and Lucent Venture Partners.

Mr. Laking said the company plans to expand its workforce by another 20 staff this year, adding to its team of just under 100 employees. The company has grown from about 65 staff at the end of 2006.

The company also added former Internet Photonics chief executive Gregory Koss to its ranks. Mr. Koss will help with BTI Photonics' growth and scaling efforts in his new capacity as executive chairman of the company.