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For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Amy Foschetti
Interprose PR
Phone: + 1 (704) 849-0433
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NanoOpto Secures Additional $3.3 Million in Venture Financing

Final Phase of B-Round Funding Will Take NanoOpto Into Production

Somerset, New Jersey. August 9, 2004. NanoOpto Corporation, who is applying novel design methods and proprietary nano-fabrication technology to produce a broad range of unique optical components that enable higher quality, low-cost optical components and systems, announced that it has closed on an additional $3.3 million in venture financing, completing the final phase of its Series B round. The funding is from existing equity partners Morgenthaler Ventures; U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III, L.L.C.; Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) Gotham Ventures and New England Ventures; Bessemer Venture Partners; and the Harris & Harris Group. Harris & Harris took this opportunity to increase its share of investment in NanoOpto. This additional $3.3 million brings the total financing raised by NanoOpto to date to $30.3 million.

“I am delighted that our existing investors are providing the additional financing that will enable NanoOpto to move from product development and initial commercialization into full production,” commented Barry Weinbaum, NanoOpto President & CEO. “It is particularly gratifying and motivating to have everyone in unified support for the progress made and the status attained.”

“We are excited by the progress that NanoOpto is making in demonstrating the value of its unique product platform by moving into production for several dynamic, challenging, and high-growth optical component markets,” said Charles Harris, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Harris & Harris Group. “Harris & Harris is delighted to continue its show of confidence and support by increasing its investment in NanoOpto.”

NanoOpto is currently sampling and shipping its unique technology for a broad range of markets, including optical disk drives, digital imaging, projection displays, and telecommunications.

About NanoOpto
NanoOpto Corporation is applying proprietary nano-fabrication technology to the rapid design and high-volume manufacture of nano-optic devices for optical components and systems. The company’s nano-meter scale optical function design capability combined with wafer-based manufacturing methods delivers optical components that allow more rapid prototyping, higher performance, and lower overall system cost. Both independently and with industry partners, NanoOpto uses its technology to produce superior versions of standard optical components and new classes of integrated optical subassemblies for both custom and general applications. The company has received financial backing from leading venture capitalists and is based in Somerset, New Jersey. For additional information about NanoOpto, visit www.nanoopto.com.

About Morgenthaler Ventures
Morgenthaler, a leading venture capital and buyout firm, was founded in 1968. The firm focuses on early-stage technology investments as well as middle-market management buyouts. It has funded over 180 companies in its 33-year history, including two of the last decade’s highest performing IPOs: Microchip Technology (1993) and Premisys Communications (1995). Current representative portfolio investments include component and semiconductor companies such as Xponent, Cortina Systems, and Peregrine Semiconductor, as well as systems companies such as Catena Networks and Caspian Networks. With its $850-million fund raised in early 2001, the firm has a total of just under $2.0 billion under management.

About U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC
Excelsior Venture Partners III, L.L.C, is the newest private equity fund managed by the Private Equity Division of U.S. Trust. The fund was raised in May 2001 with an investment focus on information technology, communications, life sciences, and information services. The Private Equity Division manages two other funds: UST Private Equity Investors Fund, Inc., and Excelsior Private Equity Fund II, Inc. The Division manages $400 million across all three funds.

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures
Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures is an early-stage information technology venture capital firm with approximately $100 million of capital under management, focused on investment opportunities in New York and the surrounding regions. The fund is managed by Ross H. Goldstein, Daniel J. Schultz and Charles Meakem, and is an affiliate fund of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson New England
Based in Cambridge, MA, DFJ New England is an early-stage venture capital firm, providing expert counsel and financing to emerging companies that display the promise of significant growth and value creation. DFJ New England is the New England affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a top-tier Silicon Valley venture fund known for visionary early-stage investment. DFJ New England invests in information technology companies, with emphasis on enterprise software and the building block technologies for computing and communications. It brings to bear both the long experience of its principals and the extensive resources of the DFJ network to help portfolio companies make key decisions and secure customers, partners, executives, and later round financing.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners, with offices in California, Massachusetts, and New York, is the leading national, early-stage venture capital firm in communications technology and internet infrastructure. The firm manages more than a billion dollars of venture funds, carrying on a tradition of hands-on, active venture investing that has continued since 1911. Many leading-edge communications companies, including Cascade, Ciena, Parametric, QED, Sirocco, Sonus Networks, and VeriSign selected BVP as their early-stage venture partner.

About Harris & Harris Group
Harris & Harris Group, Inc., is a publicly-traded (NASDAQ-TINY) venture firm. Historically, Harris & Harris Group has invested in early-stage companies based on proprietary intellectual property in a variety of fields. In 1994, Harris & Harris Group invested in its first nano-technology company. Since August of 2001, all twelve Harris & Harris Group’s new investments have been in small technology, which is now its exclusive focus.