French businesses will soon begin using laboratory space in Boston University’s Photonics Center and BU will get a share of their profits, Photonics Center officials announced last week.
French government officials and delegates from a group of French companies agreed to a deal with the university Feb. 5, called a Memorandum of Understanding.
French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Francis Mer accompanied 14 French corporate delegates who toured the facilities on Feb. 5 and BU officials announced later that day that they had signed the memorandum, according to a BU press release. The agreement was made with Opticsvalley, a French consortium of optics and photonics companies.
Photonics Center Marketing and Communications Manager Leigh Hallisey said other companies have taken advantage of Photonics Center facilities in the past. The center offers 20 labs and 55 faculty members, along with numerous doctoral students for corporate research.
“We are able to help them with their product, help with their business plan and aid them in selling their model to venture capitals,” Hallisey said.
A French company first approached the university three years ago, Hallisey said. Abdel Soufiane, CEO of the French fiberoptic company Verrillon, came to the center to start his company.
“Coming to BU saved him one year and a million dollars, because BU is one of only three universities with a fiberoptic draw tower [a two-story laboratory that designs optical fiber],” she said. “Soufiane has since built up his own company out of Grafton, Mass., becoming very successful.
“He basically became a national hero in France and therefore the government of France decided to look at BU and the Photonics Center and what they were doing,” she added.
Soufiane said the Photonics Center saved his company years and millions of dollars in 2000 during Verrillon’s infancy. Photonics Center Director Donald Fraser approached him after Soufaine’s company had received initial funding, he said.
“The telecommunications market was booming at the time,” he said. “Therefore, I needed something to quicken the process. No money could have bought me the time I got by incubating for two years at the Photonics Center.”
Soufiane said Verrillon has raised $40 million and has since bought another company in Australia.
Hallisey said it was Soufiane’s success that brought France’s attention to the center. The French government and Opticvalley invited Photonics Center staff to look at French photonics organizations in the country and evaluate their technology because of Soufiane’s history with the center.
Hallisey said ideally, the deal with France will draw other countries’ interest in the Photonics Center. BU’s high percentage of international students also attracts foreign countries’ companies, she said.
“The revenue being brought in through the Photonics Center can only improve the university as a whole,” she said. “This [joint venture] is so exciting because people from overseas are now looking at the Photonics Center at BU as an aid in building up their companies. We hope to have other companies move in here, and to build off this model.”
In the past three years, despite recent economic problems, the Photonics Center has raised almost $200 million in venture capital, including the $40 million from Verrillon.
“I think [the memorandum] is great, and I think somehow I am a part of that link – being French,” Soufiane said. “And any collaboration will be positive.”
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