China’s InnoLight closes $38M series C round led by Google Capital

China’s InnoLight Technology announced today via a press release that it has closed a US$38 million round of Series C funding led by Google Capital and Lightspeed China Partners. “We are very excited to have world class investors like Google Capital and Lightspeed China Partners,” said InnoLight board chair Dr. Hsing Kung. “We look forward to working with them closely to [help] InnoLight to become a world class optical component company.”

InnoLight, for those that aren’t familiar with it, was founded in 2008. The company produces high-speed optical transceivers that facilitate communication between servers, which has become increasingly important as cloud-based services multiply. Because of this, InnoLight has enjoyed quite a bit of success, with revenue growth nearly doubling each year according to its CEO.

Representatives of both Google Capital and Lightspeed have said that they chose the company in part because of how important its products are and will continue to be for next-generation data centers. InnoLight, for its part, is likely interested in working with Google Capital because most of the Chinese company’s revenue comes from the United States. And of course, Google also brings a lot of know-how to the table, as it operates some of the most advanced data centers in the world.

This series C round is important for InnoLight, of course, but it’s also significant because it marks Google Capital’s first investment in China, and only its second-ever investment in Asia. Unlike Google Ventures, which focuses on early-stage startups, Google Capital makes growth-stage investments. Since its inception last year, it has only disclosed around a dozen of them, so InnoLight likely represents a significant and important part of Google Capital’s portfolio.