Date: Apr 15, 2011 Source: (
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NEWARK, N.J. (April 15, 2011) -- Simphotek, Inc., developer of a market-changing optical modeling and simulation software that saves time and money by slashing product testing time from years to weeks, received a $2 million Series A investment from Sextant Group, Inc., a private New York City-based investment firm.
Details of the investment are not being made public. However, most of it will be used to grow the company through additions to management, new product development, and marketing and sales initiatives, according to Dr. Mary J. Potasek, Simphotek president.
Simphotek, based in the NJIT's Enterprise Development Center, is developing a series of photonics software products based on years of work by co-founders Drs. Potasek and Evgueni G. Parilov at various institutions, including Air Force Research Labs and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
The company's first product, SimphoSOFT™, is designed to speed up the design of nonlinear active and passive optical materials to days/weeks from the current time of months/years. The long cycle of material fabrication and testing is reduced by SimphoSOFT computer simulation because it allows users to avoid the tedious process of formulating mathematical equations and re-writing simulation in various experimental conditions.
"With its novel CAD technology and easy to use graphical user interface, users do not need to be optics experts or invest heavily in modeling to obtain meaningful photophysical results with SimphoSOFT," Dr. Potasek said.
The software can be used in myriad industries such as optical communications and biomedicine, as well as in government for military applications, and in research institutions to rapidly advance new Photonics materials.
The company is currently beta testing the extensions to the first product to distribute a suite of programs in the United States with plans to expand internationally throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Simphotek was formed in 2007 by three experts in the areas of optical modeling, software design, software development and general product development. In addition to Dr. Potasek and Dr. Parilov, who serves as the company's vice president of research and development, Dr. Karl W. Beeson rounds out the experienced management team as vice president for technology. The company holds two patents for its software and has been funded through STTR grants and a New Jersey Edison R&D Grant. SimphoSOFT was officially launched in Q1 2011 at Photonics West EXPO in San Francisco, Calif.
About Simphotek:
Simphotek Inc provides a CAD type application platform for modeling complex, time-dependent interactions of pulsed coherent light with user specified single- and multi-layer photoactivated materials. Photonics scientists, photonic materials developers and product managers can use SimphoSOFT™ to accelerate materials optimization, avoid expensive and time-consuming fabrication and testing steps, conserve internal modeling resources, and simplify interdisciplinary collaboration. For more information, visit www.simphotek.com
