Dear

We have recently made an Investment in RoadMap for the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund II (UCEF II) in a first round of financing of £515k. It is envisioned that a further financing round will be required in 12 months.

RoadMap is founded on four patents licensed from the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) in the area of silicon wavelength switch technology. 

Network operators are facing the triple challenge of increasing capacity to fulfill exploding internet data needs, managing unrelenting downward pressure on Opex and Capex costs, and supporting variable and fast evolving service features and demand patterns that put a premium on Network configuration flexibility. This leads to a requirement for very flexible optical switching that can operate at the wavelength level. Conventional switch architectures no longer meet this need as they cannot accommodate next generation 400 Gbps data rates.

The telecommunication industry is also migrating towards ‘flexgrid’ architectures  where the capacity of each channel is moderated to satisfy fluctuating demands. Spare capacity freed up by this can accommodate additional or rerouted traffic flexibly and dynamically by matching channel bandwidths to each signal’s required data rate. This advance relies heavily on software based approaches and these have the added benefit of future proofing networks as the software defined network (SDN) can be remotely modified to accommodate changing demand and new service types, protocols or standards. This is all accomplished without hardware network upgrades or physical interventions, thus reducing costs. The market is expanding with new customers (such as Google and Amazon) joining the existing set of Telco’s and carriers.

Flex-grid networking places severe demands on the underlying hardware, especially optical switches within the network known as a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (“ROADMs”) which must be competitive and have good manufacturability whilst being able to accommodate the flexibility and programmable functionality required. Within ROADM the Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS) is the key component. The ROADM market has grown from zero to $5bn since 2002. The market has already chosen RoadMap’s core technology, namely Liquid crystal on silicon (“LCoS”) as the way in which WSS’s will be made as it has several major advantages. It allows nearly all parameters to be programmable and upgraded by software-remotely and cheaply.

RoadMap's business model

RoadMap's aim is to build a demonstration WSS  which will be constructed in alliance with network equipment providers to ensure network compatibility and interoperability. Parallel discussions with network operators will help drive adoption of this key ROADM component exploiting the specification advantages and the multicast capability unique to this configuration.

The aim will be to prove the technology and to exit via an exclusive licensing deal.

This is a lean capital efficient model which should prove out in a relatively short time frame.

Management / Team

Paul May, CEO, is an experienced CEO and serial entrepreneur in the photonics and semiconductor industries with a corporate background as an engineer at IBM and Sharp and significant start-up experience as founder and  director at Cambridge Display Technology (Organic LEDs), Kamelian (telecom components) and Ocuity (3D display components).

Ian Vance MBE, Chairman, is  the former VP and Chief Engineer for Nortel Networks in Europe and previously Managing Director of the World-famous STL Laboratories in Harlow UK where fibre optics was invented. Over recent years Ian has been consulting in telecommunications, electronics and management communications.

Professor Daping Chu CTO (part-time), is head of the Photonics & Sensors Group and the Chairman of the CAPE Steering Committee. Prof. Chu has led the research of the recent development of LCoS WSSs. In addition to a highly successful academic research career he spent some years in industry with Epson. CAPE has multiple engagements with leading WSS market companies.

Dr Brian Robertson Senior Engineer, is an optical physicist with nearly twenty years academic, consulting, and industrial experience in applied photonics technology. Brian has worked on LCoS at Cambridge University since 2002 and has contributed to five LCoS WSS Patent applications whilst employed at CUED.

Valuations as of 3rd July 2014. Net NAV includes income tax relief and fees on investment

* Fund II: June 2014: £1.43 returned to investors in cash (CGT free) for every £1.00 invested (at a cost of £0.73p including fees and charges) with the first exit from Fund II

Parkwalk’s current portfolio consists of 27 companies, which have raised in excess of £250m of funding between them since 2010 and over 600 patents protect their technology and processes.
Overall, Funds I-IV’s portfolio comprises of 9% Series ‘A’, 33% Series ‘B’, 25% Pre-IPO and 33% AIM listed.  

Past performance is no guide to future performance. The price of a fund can fall as well as rise. Investors may receive back less than originally invested.