Artemis merges Optikos with Omega Optical

Omega Optical, the Vermont-headquartered company specializing in precision optical coatings and optical component design and production, has been merged with Optikos.

Both Omega and Optikos are owned by the Boston-based private equity company Artemis, which snapped up Omega back in 2020 and added Optikos to its portfolio earlier this year.

In between, the Omega business has been augmented by the addition of infrared optics specialist Spectral Systems in July 2021, with Evaporated Metal Films (EMF) and Optometrics acquired later the same year.

Massachusetts-based Optikos, whose main area of expertise is engineering systems, says that the move will add complementary technical expertise in optical design, fabrication, thin-film coatings, filtering, diffractive gratings, infrared optics, and system-level metrology across the aerospace, defense, life science, and semiconductor manufacturing verticals.

“By bringing the capabilities of both Optikos and Omega Optical under one roof, the strategic move addresses a fundamental shift in how today's optical systems are developed,” announced Artemis.

“In an era when innovation speed determines competitive advantage, the industry's traditional model of segmenting design, fabrication, coating, and testing across separate organizations has become a constraint rather than an asset.

“The combined entity reflects a deliberate reinvention of the customer partnership model to accelerate performance and delivery time.”

Growth capital commitment

The combination of portfolio companies by Artemis is accompanied by a new leadership structure, with Omega CEO David Cooper assuming the same role within the new Optikos organization.

“It is a privilege to be an active part in steering the new frontier for Optikos together with the Omega Optical team,” said Cooper. "We are seeing that customers are no longer satisfied with best-in-class design that comes paired with disconnected coating houses and third-party metrology labs.

“They need partners equipped with the entire workflow, accelerating delivery while maintaining the precision these mission-critical applications demand. By combining our organizational expertise, technologies, manufacturing capabilities, and customer relationships, we can offer more complete, competitive solutions and deliver greater value for the many customers who rely on us.

“We're removing friction, we're creating more value, and our combined team is very excited about what we can accomplish together with our customers in the years ahead.”

Rudi Coetzee, who is chief operating partner at Artemis and became interim CEO at Optikos in April when Optikos founder and long-time CEO Stephen Fantone moved to the role of strategic advisor, now becomes the firm’s executive chair.

“Beyond continuity, the combined entity strengthens the delivery model on which our customers depend,” commented Coetzee. “To support this new organizational model, we are committing growth capital to expand manufacturing capacity and are executing an accelerated talent development and hiring plan to deepen the engineering resources available to our customers' mission-critical programs.”