Finisar designs and manufactures vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and other optical communications components used in consumer products such as iPhone TrueDepth cameras and proximity sensors. The company is expanding into both research & development and high-volume production to meet surging demand. Apple is investing $390 million to fund a new 700,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sherman, Texas, and Finisar plans to hire 500 people for the facility. The new site will produce the VCSELs used in the iPhone X for Face ID, Animoji, Portrait mode and other face-mapping technologies, and also supports proximity sensors like those in AirPods. The facility is expected to be operational in the second half of 2018. The investment comes as Apple says it will purchase substantially more VCSEL wafers (10× the entire world production in Q4 2016) during Q4 2017, underscoring the need to scale production.

Total raised

$390M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Dec 2017