PARIS — Firecomms Ltd., a compound semiconductor company that develops visible wavelength light sources, announced it has closed a $5 million round of funding with new and existing investors.

Firecomms said the money will be used to expand its R&D workforce by ten over the next twelve months.

Swisscom Ventures, an investment branch of Swisscom Telecom, led the finance round. Alps Electric of Japan, a customer for Firecomms’ automotive transceiver products, London-based GP Bullhound Sidecar, Atlantic Bridge, ACT Venture Finance and Enterprise Ireland also invested in this round.

"Firecomms’ technology has enabled us to offer a Swisscom-branded Fiber Optic self install solution today," stated Pär Lange, investment partner with Swisscom.

He continued: "Our engineers have recognized the advantage of Firecomms’ Plastic Optical Fiber technology in reducing and simplifying the install time for our IPTV subscribers. We believe our investment in Firecomms will lead to more collaboration between our companies, which will result in the widespread adoption of POF technology throughout the IPTV world."

Firecomms (Cork, Ireland), founded in 2001 as a spinoff from Ireland’s National Microelectronics Research Center in Cork, makes lasers and LEDs for optical data transmission and data capture using visible light over plastic optical fiber.

In May 2006, Firecomms closed a 9.6 million euro (about $12 million) round of funding with ACT Venture Capital of Dublin and Alps Electric North America. Atlantic Bridge Ventures, the company's anchor investor, also invested in this round.

The company then said it would use the money to increase the production of semiconductor VCSEL devices and fiber optic devices, including an automotive-grade fiber optic transceiver for in-car infotainment systems.