Lightera Networks

Lightera Networks Inc. was a Cupertino, California optical networking equipment startup backed by Kleiner Perkins. It built optical core switching systems for carrier transport networks during the late-1990s buildout of long-haul optical infrastructure. Ciena Corporation acquired Lightera Networks together with Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Omnia Communications Inc. for $980 million in stock in 1999, and the Lightera technology and team were absorbed into Ciena's optical core switching line. The company no longer operates as an independent entity and never published a public API, developer portal, or machine-readable interface; this profile is retained as a historical record of the Kleiner Perkins portfolio and is not an active API provider. NOTE: unrelated to the present-day lightera.com, a rebrand of Furukawa Electric / OFS optical fiber manufacturing (see x-disambiguation).

Lightera Networks is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Hardtech, Optical Networking, Telecommunications, and Networking Equipment.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

6.8/100 minimal ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

0 APIs

CompanyHardtechOptical NetworkingTelecommunicationsNetworking EquipmentAcquiredHistorical

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 6.8/100 · minimal

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 0.0 / 20

Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.0 / 13

Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 6.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

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Resources

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Acquirer

Acquirer

Source (apis.yml)

aid: lightera
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/lightera.png
name: Lightera Networks
description: 'Lightera Networks Inc. was a Cupertino, California optical networking equipment startup backed by Kleiner Perkins.
  It built optical core switching systems for carrier transport networks during the late-1990s buildout of long-haul optical
  infrastructure. Ciena Corporation acquired Lightera Networks together with Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Omnia Communications
  Inc. for $980 million in stock in 1999, and the Lightera technology and team were absorbed into Ciena''s optical core switching
  line. The company no longer operates as an independent entity and never published a public API, developer portal, or machine-readable
  interface; this profile is retained as a historical record of the Kleiner Perkins portfolio and is not an active API provider.
  NOTE: unrelated to the present-day lightera.com, a rebrand of Furukawa Electric / OFS optical fiber manufacturing (see x-disambiguation).'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lightera/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- kleiner-perkins
x-tier: historical
x-tier-reason: acquired-1999-no-api-surface
x-status: acquired
x-acquired-by: Ciena Corporation
x-acquired-year: 1999
x-acquisition-value: $980 million in stock (joint acquisition with Omnia Communications Inc.)
x-acquisition-source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciena
x-headquarters: Cupertino, California, United States
x-enrichment:
  last_run: '2026-07-19'
  result: no-api-surface
  artifacts: none
  rationale: Entity is defunct (acquired by Ciena in 1999) and published no API, developer portal, SDK, or specification.
    No artifacts were generated; fabricating any would be unfaithful.
x-disambiguation:
- name: Lightera (Furukawa Electric / OFS)
  url: https://lightera.com/
  relationship: unrelated-name-collision
  note: 'Optical fiber and connectivity manufacturer headquartered in Norcross, Georgia; a unification and rebrand of Furukawa
    Electric, OFS, and Furukawa Electric LatAm. Not venture-backed, not the Kleiner Perkins portfolio company, and publishes
    no developer or API surface (probed 2026-07-19: /developers, /developer, /api, /docs, /llms.txt, /.well-known/security.txt
    and /.well-known/api-catalog all returned HTTP 404).'
- name: lightera.ai
  url: https://lightera.ai/
  relationship: unknown-name-collision
  note: Placeholder Squarespace site reading "We are under construction" as of 2026-07-19; no identifying company information
    published.
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-19'
tags:
- Company
- Hardtech
- Optical Networking
- Telecommunications
- Networking Equipment
- Acquired
- Historical
apis: []
common:
- type: Acquirer
  name: Ciena Corporation
  url: https://www.ciena.com/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io