GEF - The Communications Source Wireless, IPTV, VoIP, FTTP, Test, OSS/BSS, Security, VPN, Ethernet, Switching & Routing, WDM, SDH/SONET, xDSL, Cable MSO, Storage, Chipsets, Photonics

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Note: For Funding news after 10/01/06, please go to M&A, Investment, Appointments

Funding News (Before 10/01/06)

Deutsche Telekom's T-Com Venture Fund invests in CoreOptics
CoreOptics Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s optical networking subsystems, announced, that T-Com Venture Fund - the corporate venture fund of the broadband/Fixed Network division of Deutsche Telekom AG - has invested in the company.
This strategic investment emphasises the current development partnership between T-Com, CoreOptics and its manufacturing partners and backs today's roll-out of products and future innovation of CoreOptics.
"We are very pleased with T-Com Venture Fund's decision to invest in our company," said Hamid Arabzadeh, CoreOptics President and CEO. "This is indeed a strong validation of our company, our product portfolio and the future roadmap of our business to deliver innovative products to our carrier customers for their faster and more cost effective service delivery."
CoreOptics has been in forefront of developing innovative products to address carriers' requirements for innovative and cost effective service delivery. CoreOptics has developed advanced 10G/40G transponder subsystems products to overcome optical layer impairments, using innovative digital signal processing techniques based on the Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimator (MLSE) algorithm. CoreOptics currently offers complete 10G DWDM, 40/43G Single Channel Short Reach and DWDM 300 pin MSA transponder subsystems.
Related Channels: Photonics, WDM, Funding

Mobile Cohesion secures $4.8M
Mobile Cohesion, the UK based telecommunications software firm, has announced that it has closed its second major funding round of $4.8m - one of the largest venture investments this year for any Northern Ireland based technology firm.
According to Per Lindblad, Mobile Cohesion's CEO, this is further endorsement of the company's market defining position in partner relationship management solutions for mobile operators worldwide.
"Our customers, some of the best known brand leaders in mobile telephony, have endorsed the concept of partner and performance focused partner relationship management based on our HYDRA product.
"With this funding round we can now further develop our presence in a vast market - one in which we have massive competitive advantage. We are very proud that our achievements have been recognised by our existing backers Cross Atlantic Partners and Accel Partners. But now Belfast-based Enterprise Equity (NI), Northern Ireland's longest established VC firm, has led our latest funding round supported by existing investors as well as Viridian Growth Fund - a Northern Ireland based fund managed by Clarendon Fund Managers."
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

M5 Networks raises $7.75 million
New York-based M5 Networks, one of the country’s leading outsourced IP phone system providers, has raised $7.75 million in expansion capital. The investment was led by Edison Venture Fund, and also included Greycroft Partners and Milestone Venture Partners.
M5 Networks provides small and medium sized businesses with the flexibility of a high-end Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system, without the expense, maintenance and obsolescence of an on-premise phone system. Multiple offices, remote office workers, telecommuters and road warriors can be brought together seamlessly using M5’s outsourced IP phone system.
Related Channels: VoIP, Funding

Aztek raises $6.6M
Boulder, Colorado-based Aztek Networks (formerly Aztek Engineering), a leading provider of Emergency Stand Alone (ESA) switching and IP gateway products, announced the closing of $6.6 million in Series A funding. The financing, co-led by Sequel Venture Partners and Grotech Capital Group, will fund development and introduction of the company's innovative Remote Switch Gateway product line. The Telecommunications Development Fund also participated in the round. Tim Connor, partner with Sequel Venture Partners, and Joseph Zell, general partner with Grotech Capital Group, will join Aztek Networks' Board of Directors.
Aztek Networks' Remote Switch Gateway is an IP media gateway and True Emergency Stand Alone (True ESA(TM)) switch. True ESA is a unique, patent-pending method for constantly maintaining subscriber dial-tone and calling access to emergency 911 services in a purpose built, high availability hardware system that is deployable in a field cabinet. Aztek Networks is the only provider of IP media gateway products using True ESA. The Remote Switch Gateway family of products will roll out in early spring.
Related Channels: VoIP, Funding

OpSource secures $20M
Santa Clara-based OpSource Inc. said Monday it received $20 million in investment capital, venture leasing, and credit lines.
The company said funding was led by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Santa Clara-based Intel Corp.
OpSource said existing venture partners, including Palo Alto-based ComVentures and Artiman Ventures, and Waltham, Mass.-based Key Venture Partners, also contributed.
Roland Van der Meer, a ComVentures co-founder, joined the company's board of directors.
San Jose-based Western Technology Investment, a debt financing provider to start-up and emerging growth companies, provided an undisclosed amount for equipment costs. Silicon Valley Bank, which is owned by Santa Clara-based SVB Financial Group, extended an undisclosed additional line of credit to the company.
OpSource focuses on providing operational infrastructure and ongoing services that enable software companies to maintain "software as a service" products.
Related Channels: OSS/BSS, Funding

NexTone receives $25 million investment from Columbia Partners Private Capital
NexTone received a $25 million investment from Columbia Partners Private Capital, the private investment group of Columbia Partners L.L.C., a Washington, D.C.-based investment management group. Previous Columbia Partners Private Capital investments include Good Technology, iBiquity Digital Corporation, and Traffic.com.
This investment brings NexTone's total private funding to date to $92.5 million. Earlier venture investors in NexTone include One Equity Partners (OEP), BCE Capital, Core Capital, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds, and Safeguard Scientifics.
NexTone has achieved record bookings in 2006 for its IntelliConnect System(TM), a suite of intelligent session management and interconnect products designed for Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) service providers. NexTone customers currently carry over 50 percent of the world's international VoIP traffic.
The IntelliConnect System enables service providers to enforce service quality and optimize service economics by providing a common way to exchange, optimize, secure, and bill for VoIP and multimedia sessions that flow across network boundaries. As a result, NexTone enables service providers to expand their service reach and accelerate VoIP and multimedia revenues.
NexTone's global success is fueled by the rapid adoption of inter-carrier VoIP peering and enterprise SIP trunking, which allows its customers to route traditional TDM voice minutes over IP--a significant advantage to deploy VoIP efficiently and cost effectively.
NexTone will use the funds to further enhance its product portfolio and expand its customer base.
Related Channels: VoIP, Funding

Cortina buys assets of Intel's optical network components business for $115M and secures $132M new funding
California-based Cortina Systems has acquired the assets of Intel's optical network components business for $115 million, which consists of a minority investment position and an undisclosed amount of cash. Cortina also announced the completion of a new $132 million funding round led by new investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) as well as existing investors Canaan Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures. Additional investors providing funding include new investors Alloy Ventures, Bridgescale Partners, Doll Capital Management, and Sofinnova Ventures, and along with all of Cortina's existing venture investors. The transaction closed on September 8, 2006.
"Cortina has all the attributes we look for in a semiconductor investment: it's an expansion-stage private company with an industry-leading technical team and strong customer relationships with the leading systems vendors," said Norm Fogelsong, general partner at IVP. "We are happy to have led this funding round, which will create the next major semiconductor supplier in the networking space."
The acquisition is a major step forward in Cortina's strategy of becoming the new leader in components for the infrastructure routing, transport, and enterprise markets, making it the top provider of Ethernet Framers, Ethernet PHYs, Optical Transport FEC framers, Ethernet over SONET service framers, and T1/E1 Line Interface Units. As part of the acquisition, Cortina will add key Intel employees in engineering, product testing/validation, operations, marketing and application engineering as well as new facilities in Folsom, California, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Asia.
"As the market for 10 gigabit communications becomes mainstream, makers of switches, routers, and other infrastructure gear need better and more cost-effective ways to deliver a higher level of throughput," says Drew Lanza, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, one of Cortina's founding investors in 2001. "At the time we invested, we predicted the need to marry high-speed network interfaces, low-layer processing and high speed interfaces on a single chip. Cortina's success in achieving this has made it one of the stars of our portfolio."
Related Channels: Photonics, Chipsets, Mergers & Acquisitions, Funding

Exeros secures additional $12 million
California-based Exeros, Inc., an innovator in data mapping and automated data relationship discovery software, announced today it has secured an additional $12 million in a Series B round of private equity financing. This round of funding is led by AllianceBernstein Holding L.P., with Exeros' original investors Bay Partners and Globespan Capital Partners participating. The Series B round of funding will be used to grow the sales team, add sales coverage in new geographies and to grow the engineering team in order to extend the product line.
"Exeros has an experienced management team, is pursuing a large market opportunity with a product that solves a 40-year old problem, and is already in production at some of the largest companies in the world," said Jamie Kiggen, senior vice president, AllianceBernstein L.P.
"Large companies need to understand how data relates across the enterprise before they can ensure data consistency or improve security," said Piyush Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Exeros. "This is a problem regardless of industry, and one of growing importance. Exeros addresses these serious issues by discovering the relationships between datasets. Understanding where data is and the relationships between systems is the foundation for strong data governance initiatives."
Related Channels: Storage, Funding

Digiweb raises €20M and touts 4G in Ireland
Ireland-based Digiweb Ltd has concluded a €20m funding round in conjunction with the Moritz Group, one of Ireland’s leading investment development firms active throughout Ireland and Central Europe.
Until now, Digiweb’s rapid expansion and construction of its national networks has been entirely self-financed through reinvestment of revenues and a business expansion programme. The company has built a reputation for delivering innovative and quality services nationwide that other providers have found difficult to match. Digiweb’s Metro service, launched just 12 months ago, has enjoyed phenomenal take-up amongst both business and home subscribers, uniquely offering a Broadband and Telephone bundle for less than €20 per month, less than the basic line rental fee consumers are being charged by other operators before broadband is added.
The new funds will extend Digiweb’s ongoing expansion of Metro throughout Ireland, will support the company’s further expansion into Europe, and will build Ireland’s first 4G mobile network, details of which are due to be announced soon.
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

VCs bullish on FTTP and IPTV in China -- EPON provider Ocean Broadband Networks (OBN) closes Series B financing
Ocean Broadband Networks Ltd. (OBN), the leading provider of triple-play (voice/data/video) broadband access – Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON), is pleased to announce the close of its Series B financing. Motorola Ventures and Atlas Venture have joined as new investors. OBN will use this new funding to expand its China operations and move to commercialize and deploy its EPON solutions.
OBN is shipping its market-proven EPON products with the features and performance to enable fast, easy-to-deploy, and low-cost triple-play solutions for FTTH, FTTB and FTTC at over 100X the bandwidth of DSL. Telecom and CCTV carriers will gain the ability to offer a broader range of communications and entertainment services including IPTV, Internet access, telephony, high-speed data, VOD, SDTV, as well as HDTV. Telecom and CCTV carriers expect to enjoy a higher return on investment due to the lower cost and easier maintenance of FTTB and FTTC deployment. Subscribers will win with higher bandwidth access to these enhanced communications and entertainment services.
"We are seeing rapid growth in broadband market enabled by EPON products. The adding of Motorola and Atlas Ventures will have a strong impact on our business expansion both in depth and in broadness," said Wei Gao, Co-founder/CEO of OBN
"China is of continuing strategic importance to Motorola. Besides shoring up strength in mobile devices and network infrastructure, Motorola is expanding its reach into emerging communications technologies that can help deliver seamless mobility solutions to our customers in China," said Matthew I. Growney, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures.
"Atlas has been an international venture capital firm for over 20 years and our emerging investment activities in China are therefore a natural extension of our proven international strategy. We are very pleased with our investment in Ocean Broadband, which is our first investment in China. We are also confident about the potential of the growing investment opportunities in China and about our growing participation in this exciting development," said Gerry Montanus, Sr. Partner at Atlas Venture.
Related Channels: China, FTTP, Video, Funding

SinglePoint raises $30.75M and acquires Mobile Media North America
Bellevue, Wash.-based Wireless Services Corp. announced it closed a $30.75 million series C round of funding. A portion of the proceeds were used to acquire Mobile Media North America. With the acquisition, Wireless Services has changed its corporate name to SinglePoint to reflect the new focus and will remain headquartered in Bellevue, Wash.
SinglePoint represents the marriage of proven mobile messaging technology with industry-leading campaign management and production tools. "The result is a mobile messaging and marketing company with the reliability required by carriers and the flexibility to drive marketing promotions," said Rich Begert, who will remain as president and CEO of SinglePoint.
Seattle-based Ignition Partners led the funding round and was joined by new investor Rally Capital Services LLC. Pre-existing investors participating include Northwest Venture Associates, Madrona Venture Group LLC, Intel Capital and SeaPoint Ventures.
"We see SinglePoint's years of experience in this space and strong leadership giving the company an edge to capitalize on the prospect of triple-digit growth in the mobile content market over the next few years," said Adrian Smith with Ignition Partners.
Related Channels: Wireless, Mergers & Acquisitions, Funding

Azaire secures $21M
California-based Azaire Networks Inc., a leading Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions supplier, has secured $21 million in new funding. Led by Investor Growth Capital, a new investor in the company, Azaire will use these funds to augment the company's sales and marketing programs, as well as support ongoing operations to accelerate revenue growth. Existing Series B investors Convergence Partners, Rustic Canyon Partners and Woodside Fund also participated in the round.
Azaire Networks' IP Converged Network Platform (IP-CNP) enables service providers to offer mobile broadband services through the creation of hybrid networks. Hybrid networks integrate wide area cellular and IP access networks (such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX), allowing operators to extend their 2.5G/3G footprints quickly and cost effectively. Service providers are able to offer new mobile broadband services that increase revenues and improve customer loyalty, while business users and consumers receive the content they desire on the best available network.
"We are excited to add Investor Growth Capital to our investor group as well as have all existing investors participate in this new funding round," said Bill Howe, Azaire Networks' President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our vision since day one has focused on providing operators a cost-effective solution they can deploy today to increase subscriber revenues by taking advantage of Hybrid Access Networks. The continued enthusiasm of our existing investors, the new participation of Investor Growth Capital and the market shift toward a focus on mobile broadband services reaffirms our strategy."
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

Psytechnics gets new funding
Psytechnics, the global leader in voice, video and multimedia Quality of Experience (QoE) assessment for mobile, fixed and converged network service providers, announced that it has closed its latest round of financing from existing investors and appointed a new Vice President of Marketing.
This round of funding brings total capital raised for Psytechnics to over $20M, from partners including 3i, GIMV, NIF, NVP and BT. The funding will be used to enhance global sales and marketing efforts aimed at meeting the growing demand for Quality of Experience software for VoIP, IPTV and 3G services.
In addition to the further resources made available through funding, as part of its larger growth initiative, Psytechnics has named Benjamin Ellis as its Vice President of Global Marketing. Ellis will report to CEO Anthony Finbow, driving strategy and campaigns to further grow revenue and the reach of the product portfolio. Prior to joining Psytechnics, Ellis was at Juniper Networks, where he was Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications, and previously head of Product and Solutions marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His track record includes tenures at a number of successful blue-chip Silicon Valley companies, including Cisco Systems.
The additional investment and new appointment follow Psytechnics’ continued market success in EMEA and the US.
“This initiative will help us significantly speed up our product development and sales capability to meet growing customer demand,” commented Anthony Finbow, Chief Executive Officer of Psytechnics. “With the addition of Benjamin’s expertise and passion to our strong management team, we look forward to a very exciting year and future.”
Related Channels: OSS/BSS, VoIP, Video, Wireless, Funding, Appointments

SunRocket secures $33M
Vienna, Va.-based SunRocket, one of the nation’s fastest-growing Internet phone service providers, has secured $33 million for its Series C round of institutional financing, bringing the firm’s total venture capital raised to approximately $80 million. The Series C includes participation from all of SunRocket’s existing investors: BlueRun Ventures, Mayfield Fund, DCM and Anthem Capital Management.
Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, the largest private sector pension insurer in Finland, participated significantly in the Series C round, along with The Grosvenor Funds, a well-known Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm, and Brú Venture Capital (BVC), a private equity and venture firm with investments in the U.S. and Europe.
“The additional commitment from existing investors signals an unwavering belief that SunRocket has found the right recipe for success to strategically grow our customer base and implement the necessary fiscal restraint to achieve near-term profitability,” said Lisa Hook, president and CEO of SunRocket. “The Grosvenor Funds, Varma and BVC have strong relationships with our current funders and share SunRocket’s enthusiasm to build an Internet phone company that knows no boundaries when it comes to delivering innovation and value to the customer.”
“As consumers grow increasingly comfortable with VoIP as an alternative to traditional home phone service, this is an opportune time to invest in the U.S. Internet phone service market,” said Risto Autio, Head of Private Equity Investing at Varma.
Related Channels: VoIP, Funding

iVivity raises additional $10M
Atlanta-based iVivity, the leading provider of storage network building block technologies, including industry leading iDiSX(R) storage network processors, software and custom board solutions to system OEMs, has named Tom Burniece to the position of CEO.
Burniece brings more than 30 years of storage industry experience to iVivity including positions in executive management and senior engineering management as well as business consulting and Board of Directors appointments across a spectrum of Fortune 500 and startup companies. "As iVivity enters this critical phase of delivering on its design wins and the intensification of research and development, Tom Burniece brings an extraordinary arsenal of management experience and industry contacts to help the company exploit its leadership position and realize its full potential," said Bruce Bergman, Chairman of iVivity's Board of Directors.
"As an early member of iVivity's Board of Advisors, I became a big believer in the company's technology and market potential a long time ago," said Tom Burniece. "I am extremely pleased to come on board in a hands-on capacity to lead the company in this exciting next phase of growth."
iVivity also announced an additional $10 million investment with all current investors participating. The additional funding will be used to sustain the company's operations as revenue ramps from iVivity's recent design wins, as well as bring to market its next generation products and expand its world class engineering capabilities.
Related Channels: Storage, Chipsets, Funding, Appointments

IPLocks secures additional $4.4M
San Jose-based IPLocks, a leading provider of database security and compliance solutions that protect business critical information, has secured an additional $4.4 million in funding from institutional and individual investors as a result of over-subscription to its recent Series D round of funding.
"IPLocks was founded on the belief that protecting sensitive data in company databases is crucial for business survival," said Akio Sakamoto, President, CEO and Co-founder of IPLocks. "We are pleased to see that investors realize the value of the IPLocks offering and are validating the opportunity for this market by investing in IPLocks."
IPLocks is the only comprehensive database security solution that assesses for vulnerabilities, monitors user behavior and provides an independent audit trail to support regulatory compliance. The IPLocks solution also supports the widest range of database platforms including IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and Teradata.
Related Channels: Security, Storage, Funding

Covega raises $10M
Washington-based Covega Corporation, a leading provider of state-of-the-art, opto-electronic components and subsystems, has raised ten million dollars in expansion financing. Core Capital Partners, Intersouth Partners, and Optical Capital Group/HRLD were the lead investors in this round, which also included Siemens Venture Capital and Square One Bank. Covega has raised $30 million since its inception in February 2003 and will use this latest round to fund working capital growth, expansion of manufacturing capacities and acceleration of the product roadmap for new tunable optical components.
"Demand for our industry leading gain chips and small form factor modulators for tunable lasers and transponders has dramatically increased to record volumes over the last year. This has helped our business to grow over 25% quarter over quarter at more than twice the industry average. This recent infusion of capital will enable us to scale our operations to match the growth in the marketplace," said Joe Dixon, CEO of Covega Corporation.
One of Covega's major drivers has been "wavelength tunability," which both reduces network capital and operating costs, and enables the deployment of agile networks. Products such as Covega's gain chips allow tunable laser and transponder providers to launch light further and tune over a significantly greater bandwidth than competing solutions. This lowers their overall costs by minimizing the need for expensive optical signal regeneration or amplification. It also enables carrier customers to tune these products to any specific wavelength, directly "in the field," by using a single component.
Related Channels: Photonics, WDM, Funding

WildBlue secures $350M
Denver-based WildBlue Communications, Inc. has completed a $350 million debt financing led by Liberty Media Corporation and Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC. The $350 million of secured financing enhances the company's capital structure and provides additional capital to fund the continuing growth of WildBlue's broadband business. WildBlue provides broadband connectivity via satellite to homes and small businesses in communities where terrestrial broadband access alternatives are either limited or unavailable.
"The WildBlue team has worked very hard this year to make our affordable broadband Internet service available to homes and small businesses in rural areas across the continental U.S.," said Dave Leonard, CEO of WildBlue. "Our customer base continues to expand rapidly, with over 85,000 customers in rural areas who've taken advantage of the availability of WildBlue's high speed service to date. We are now adding over 10,000 new subscribers per month, and this funding enables substantial expansion of our service availability by tripling our customer capacity with the launch of our second satellite, WildBlue-1."
Related Channels: Wireless, xDSL, Funding

Motricity raises $32 million
Motricity, a global leader in Mobile Marketplace Management, has received $32 million in funding to further the company's aggressive expansion in the mobile content industry. Concurrently, the company announced the appointment of David Holland, vice president and treasurer of Cisco Systems and Steve Clark, former chief executive officer of SpectraSite Communications, to its board of directors.
The $32 million is part of a larger funding round that will close in stages in the coming weeks. It was led by Advanced Equities Inc. with participation from other existing investors.
"The funding and the board additions represent resources and experience that will enable us to further cement our leadership position in this industry," said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and chief executive officer at Motricity. "We are constantly focused on setting the standard for mobile technologies and services that enable our customers to fully execute their goals within the mobile channel.
"We will use the funding to fuel our ongoing strategic development activity as we are aggressively pursuing opportunities for tactical growth into new markets," said Wuerch. In July, Motricity acquired Los Angeles-based GoldPocket Wireless, a leader in mobile interactivity and marketing solutions for media and entertainment companies, broadening Motricity's customer footprint and positioning the company as the industry's most complete supplier of on-deck and off-deck mobile solutions.
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

Nuova to become a majority-owned subsidiary of Cisco
Cisco Systems Inc. has made an investment in Nuova Systems Inc. to accelerate next-generation product development in its data center.
Cisco has committed certain technology and $50 million of funding to Nuova Systems with the possibility of up to $42 million in additional funding in the future.
Nuova Systems will become a majority-owned subsidiary of Cisco. It will be 80% owned by Cisco, with the remaining 20% held by employees of the subsidiary. Formed last summer, Nuova has 76 employees, including Mazzola, Cisco's former chief development officer, and three other former Cisco executives, Prem Jain, Luca Cafiero, and Soni Jiandani. All are expected to return to Cisco, working for the new subsidiary, if the transaction goes through as expected.
Cisco has the option to buy the remaining 20% and if Cisco exercises this option, the transaction would occur in late fiscal year 2008 or early fiscal year 2009.
The potential payouts made under the option are based on the success of Nuova Systems' products sold through Cisco, with a minimum potential payout of $10 million and a maximum of $578 million.
Related Channels: Switching & Routing, Mergers & Acquisitions, Funding

Digium receives $13.8M from Matrix Partners
Digium Inc., the original creator of Asterisk(R) and pioneer of open source telephony, has closed its first round of venture capital funding, receiving $13.8 million from Matrix Partners, a leading U.S.-based venture capital firm. The funding will help fuel the continued growth of Digium and Asterisk, especially in launching new offerings for the enterprise communications market, ranging from small to large businesses.
"We have maintained steady growth and have been consistently profitable. We felt seeking outside funding was unnecessary, but Matrix Partners' success and vision in the open source industry was too compelling to ignore," said Mark Spencer, president of Digium and creator of Asterisk. "Matrix's experience as a JBoss initial investor, was a key differentiator. Early on, we realized Matrix's involvement would help us grow more quickly."
Related Channels: VoIP, Funding

Maven secures $12M
Maven Networks has closed on $12 million in Series C funding led by Prism Venture Partners of Westwood, MA. This latest round of financing includes participation from existing investors Palo Alto-based Accel Partners and General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge, MA, and brings the total amount of financing to $30 million. The new funding will be used to accelerate the company's leadership in broadband video technology and products, fuel its global sales expansion, and introduce new services and solutions for leading media and entertainment companies.
Woody Benson, General Partner for Prism Venture Partners, will join Maven's Board of Directors. A former CEO with over 25 years of technology and communications marketing experience, Benson focuses on investments in digital media and mobile communications technologies, as well as business infrastructure software.
"This latest financing from top venture capital firms is a testament to the tremendous global market opportunity in broadband video, and the great momentum and credibility we have established in securing over 20 of the largest media companies," said Hilmi Ozguc, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Maven Networks. "We are in the midst of nothing less than the fundamental transformation of the television and motion picture industries. Maven already plays a critical role in enabling new advertising driven broadband video services and we are fortunate to have the backing of three leading venture firms with deep expertise in building high-growth digital media businesses."
Related Channels: Video, Funding

Kazeon raises $21M
California-based Kazeon, the leader in Unstructured Information Management, has received $21 million in its third round of venture capital financing, bringing the total investment in the company to $44 million. The investment syndicate includes Menlo Ventures, who led the round, and Focus Ventures with all existing investors increasing their investment in this round of financing. This funding round, in response to growing market demand, will allow Kazeon to expand US and International sales, marketing, and engineering to accelerate its time to profitability.
“Menlo Ventures carefully evaluated many companies delivering information management solutions and we are convinced Kazeon is the clear leader of the pack,” said Arvind Purushotham, managing director of Menlo Ventures. “We invest in industry leaders that have the potential to alter the landscape and provide innovative solutions to customers. Kazeon solutions for enterprise search, information governance, and ILM are field proven and solve real customer problems.”
“Firmly entrenched as a leader in unstructured information management, Kazeon demonstrates a clear understanding of customer problems and delivers strategic solutions for data privacy, security, and legal discovery,” said Kevin McQuillan, general partner of Focus Ventures. “With its rapidly growing customer base, we believe the company will continue to accelerate revenue growth and strengthen its leadership position.”
“Kazeon welcomes the additional support from Menlo, Focus and all of our original investors in this over-subscribed round of funding,” said Sudhakar Muddu, CEO & founder of Kazeon. “Our undeniable momentum in the industry has paved the way for this successful round of funding and we are delighted for continued support from our investors and the welcome addition of Menlo and Focus Ventures as new investors.”
Related Channels: Storage, OSS/BSS, Funding

Helion Venture Partners launches $140M multi-stage venture fund
Helion Venture Partners announced the launch of a $140 M multi-stage, India-focused venture fund. The fund will provide capital and mentoring to "technology-powered" businesses in India.
The funds investors are well-respected global institutions including Ivy League endowment funds and highly-successful Internet pioneering entrepreneurs. The fund and its portfolio companies will be advised by an experienced and industry renowned team of professionals based in India. They include Sanjeev Aggarwal, Managing Director; Ashish Gupta, Managing Director; Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Director and Rahul Chandra, Director.
Related Channels: Funding, OSS/BSS

Digicel Group raises $150M
Jamaica-based Digicel Group, the fastest-growing mobile telecommunications company in the Caribbean, has raised US$150 million in capital through a corporate bond offering to further support its continued growth strategy and rapid expansion efforts in key markets of Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti. Led by investment banks Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, the bond financing priced at a yield of 8.625% and represents continued confidence from the investment community following the inaugural US$300 million bond offering initiated last July.
Since launching in Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti, Digicel has quickly gained market share in both countries and mobile customers have embraced the company's innovative mobile technology and accessible telecommunications services. In Haiti, a country with a population of 8.5 million and combined fixed and cellular penetration of 5.7%, Digicel has brought an unprecedented inward investment of US$130 million to the developing nation.
"We will continue to aggressively expand our services in Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti, as we have seen tremendous acceptance by our mobile customers in these markets which, in turn, has led us to significantly increase our investment in both of these countries. We are delighted that, yet again, the international investment community has demonstrated its strong confidence in our growth strategy and current expansion efforts," said Colm Delves, Digicel Group CEO.
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

Interactive TV solutions provider BIAP raises $20M from Sevin Rosen Funds, SCP Partners and others
Plano, Texas-based BIAP Systems, Inc., the leading provider of interactive television (iTV) solutions, announced the completion of a $20 million round of financing led by Sevin Rosen Funds with participation by SCP Partners and other existing investors. The financing will be used for the development and promotion of new applications.
BIAP Systems' (Broadband Interactive Applications) next-generation software enhances digital television services by enabling a broad range of iTV applications that can be used to create contextual, targeted advertising opportunities. With BIAP's software, which is accessible to the consumer through the digital set top box and remote control, viewers also gain access to additional personalization and localization capabilities, thereby increasing the value of their digital television experience.
BIAP has a growing number of interactive television customers, including leading media companies such as Time Warner Cable, NBC Universal and eBay. In collaboration with Time Warner Cable, BIAP launched a successful Fantasy Football application last fall, and recently deployed a new Fantasy Baseball application that enables fans to track their unique team's performance while simultaneously watching any channel.
"BIAP has revolutionized television. Today's digital set-top boxes are being transformed into devices that offer viewers an unlimited selection of personalized TV enhancements, and BIAP is leading this revolution," said Sevin Rosen Partner Ram Velidi, who will join BIAP's Board of Directors. "Whether a viewer is searching eBay on television using a standard digital remote control, or reading about an athlete on screen while viewing an Olympic broadcast, BIAP has blown through the boundaries of traditional television. Sevin Rosen Funds is pleased to work with the leader in this burgeoning field."
Related Channels: Video, OSS/BSS, Funding

DiVitas raises $15M
California-based DiVitas Networks, a provider of seamless, unified mobility solutions for enterprise networks, has raised $15 million in its oversubscribed Series B round of funding. Lead investor Menlo Ventures was joined by existing investor Clearstone Venture Partners. To date, the company has raised $23 million. John Jarve, managing director of Menlo Ventures, has joined the DiVitas board of directors. DiVitas will use the funding to bolster its sales, marketing, customer support, and engineering teams.
"Menlo Ventures has been following cellular/WiFi convergence for a long time and tracking a number of companies in that space. We could not find any company with a winning strategy," said Jarve. "We've invested in DiVitas because of its unique enterprise-centric approach that allows enterprises to gain control of mobility. Another reason we feel so strongly about the company is that it has a great management team."
"As a lead investor in SpectraLink and Ascend Communications, John brings to the DiVitas board a deep understanding of wireless and communication technologies," said Vivek Khuller, CEO of DiVitas. "He's incredibly smart and well-informed and is one of the savviest investors in early-stage technology companies. At DiVitas we are disrupting the world of mobile communications, and the backing of John and Menlo Ventures is a validation of our strategy, our team, and our market."
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

Matrix Partners announces the closing of its Matrix India Fund
Matrix Partners, a leading U.S.-based venture capital firm, Tuesday announced the closing of its Matrix India Fund. The $150 million, multi-sector, multi-stage fund was founded by Avnish Bajaj, previously co-founder, Chairman & CEO of India's largest online marketplace Baazee.com (acquired by eBay), and Rishi Navani, previously Managing Director at WestBridge Capital Partners. Matrix India extends Matrix Partners' bi-coastal reach in the U.S. to India and its rapidly growing economy.
"Matrix Partners is the first leading venture capital firm to establish a fund in India," said Paul Ferri, Founding Partner of Matrix Partners. "The burgeoning Indian market represents a new frontier of innovation and Matrix Partners is excited to be participating in the region's growth."
Based in Mumbai, Matrix India will focus its investments across the consumer services sector, including Internet, mobile value-added services (MVAS), financial services, media/entertainment companies, and travel/leisure. Entrepreneurs will benefit from Navani's and Bajaj's deep understanding of the Indian market and Matrix Partners' expertise in helping companies with U.S.-based Indian entrepreneurs, including Cascade Communications, Sycamore Networks, Starent Networks, and Aruba Wireless Networks, to become market leaders.
Related Channels: Funding, Wireless, Video, OSS/BSS

Netcordia grabs $10M
US-based Netcordia, a leading provider of network analysis tools, announced the completion of its Series B round of funding of $10 million led by Trinity Ventures, and joined by original Series A investor Novak Biddle Venture Partners. This round brings the total amount of financing the company raised to date to $13 million. Netcordia will use this investment to further accelerate product development in the network management space, as well as expand global distribution.
Today, enterprises and government agencies place rigorous demands on their networks, expecting high reliability, rapid response time, consistency and compliance. Netcordia meets these demands with NetMRI, an award-winning network analysis appliance that goes beyond reporting to provide analysis based upon expert rules and best practices. Using NetMRI, network managers can optimize their networks, pinpointing and solving present and potential hot spots. NetMRI has been purchased by numerous leading enterprise and government organizations, and has been described by Network Computing as "the most useful network management product in five years."
Trinity Ventures General Partner and industry veteran Fred Wang will join the Netcordia Board of Directors. He brings over a decade of experience investing in networking companies. "Netcordia is rapidly emerging as the leader in innovative, network analysis tools for enterprises," said Fred Wang. "Having worked with Don Pyle and Jon Bierman before, Netcordia's CEO and VP of Sales respectively, we were attracted by the management team, technology and market opportunity."
"I am really pleased to be working with Fred Wang and the Trinity firm again, and building upon our past success," said Don Pyle, CEO of Netcordia. "We continue to grow our Netcordia team and the support from Trinity and Novak Biddle will allow us to continue to meet, and expand upon our business objectives, design superior products, and offer premium customer service to Netcordia customers."
Related Channels: Funding, OSS/BSS, Test

Covi Technologies secures $15M
Texas-based CoVi Technologies, Inc., the high definition video surveillance company, has secured $15 million in additional funding bringing the company's total equity financing to date to $46 million. The funding round includes CoVi original investors: Oak Investment Partners, Polycom, Inc., and Walden International, as well as the addition of Centennial Ventures. CoVi will expand its sales and support globally to address the increasing demand for the CoVi Crystal HD video surveillance system, as well as continue investment in advanced technology development.
CoVi introduced its first product CoVi EVQ-1000 High Definition video surveillance camera in April 2004, which was awarded the International Security Conference (ISC) New Product Showcase Award for CCTV. CoVi's flagship product Crystal HD was delivered in September 2005. As the recipient of the Technology Innovation Award in Video Surveillance by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, CoVi Crystal HD is the world's first and only video surveillance system employing High Definition technology over IP networks. Unlike other surveillance systems, Crystal HD uniquely provides unparalleled image quality in both live and recorded video, combined with bandwidth management features for network efficiency and information accessibility so users benefit from clearly discernable, accessible video for forensics and prosecution.
"With Crystal HD, we've established solid traction in multiple markets and are ready to embark on the next phase of our company's growth," said Barry Walker, President and CEO, CoVi Technologies, Inc. "We will be further advancing our market position by expanding sales and support functions in Europe and well as North America where we have seen increasing demand."
"CoVi has evolved an industry that has seen little innovation for two decades by delivering up to 16 times higher video quality to the mission- critical application of security," continued Walker. "With the support of our investors we will continue to deliver this essential solution to security professionals worldwide."
Related Channels: Video, Security, Funding

Surf raises $8M
Israel-based SURF Communication Solutions ("Surf"), a provider of software and hardware-based media processing solutions, announced the completion of a funding round for the Company totaling $8 million dollars. The funding round was led by Poalim Ventures, the venture capital arm of Poalim Capital Markets. The majority of existing large shareholders in the Company, such as Giza, Pitango, BOS, and Texas Instruments Incorporated ("TI"), took part in the current round, an expression of their confidence and full support for the Company.
Surf is the first company to support convergence of all media types -- voice, video and data -- over various networks (IP, mobile, wireline, and wireless), running simultaneously on a single DSP, or over boards carrying multiple DSPs to enable high capacity propagation.
Eran Gersht, CEO of Poalim Ventures, said that the decision to invest in Surf and to lead the funding round was taken after a thorough due diligence of the Company's capabilities and potential for growth. "Surf is a veteran company that over the years has built up significant technological assets. In the re-structuring effort that took place approximately two and a half years ago, several key personnel were recruited, including new members of management. The Company decided to focus on the development of software and hardware media processing solutions for voice, video and data, a field in which the Company is considered a leader," added Gersht.
Related Channels: Chipsets, VoIP, Video, Funding

Limelight completes $130M equity financing round led by Goldman Sachs
Arizona-based Limelight Networks, Inc., the world's leading content delivery network for digital media, announced the completion on July 12 of a $130 million equity financing round led by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. As part of the financing, representatives from Goldman Sachs will join the company's board of directors.
"Consumer demand for rich media delivered over the Internet - video, music, games, and social media content - has exploded over the past few years. This financing round, our first significant external equity financing, sets the stage for Limelight to continue expanding its infrastructure and capabilities to meet mounting market demand," said Bill Rinehart, President and CEO of Limelight Networks. "Goldman Sachs brings a depth of experience with high growth technology companies to their role as an investor in our company and a partner for the future."
"Limelight Networks is a clear leader in Internet-based digital media distribution, with an outstanding track record of performance, customer service, innovation, and the financial results that follow," said Pete Perrone, Vice President, Goldman Sachs. "With a network designed from the start for bandwidth-intensive rich media applications, Limelight is uniquely positioned to help customers deliver new broadband media services. We look forward to helping drive this next phase of growth."
Related Channels: Video, Funding

Tello secures $10M in Series B funding
Tello Corporation, a provider of OnDemand unified communication and collaboration services, has secured $10 million in Series B funding. BCE Capital led the round, with Tello’s existing investors, including Eagle River, Evercore Partners, Rho Ventures, and Intel Capital also participating. Tello will use the funding to further develop its OnDemand Unified Communication and Collaboration service designed for individual professionals, SMBs and work teams, before bringing it to market later this year. Doug Renert, CEO at Tello, commented, “BCE Capital has a successful track record of investing and actively supporting emerging leaders in the field of next-generation communications. We share with BCE a common vision of what Tello will become and are delighted to have them join our team.”
Gary Rubinoff, managing partner at BCE Capital, has joined Tello’s board of directors. “We are very enthusiastic about our investment in Tello,” said Mr. Rubinoff. “The unified communication category is taking off and Tello is well positioned to become a leader by delivering breakthrough productivity enhancement at a disruptively low price.”
Related Channels: OSS/BSS, Funding

NetEffect closes $25M Series B funding round
Texas-based NetEffect, the leader in next-generation Ethernet connectivity solutions, announced the closing of a $25 million Series B funding round. The financing was provided by a highly respected team of investors with proven track records in semiconductors and communications, including: Austin Ventures, Duchossois Technology Partners, Granite Ventures, Infinity Capital, JatoTech Ventures, TI Ventures and TL Ventures.
With strong support from investors, NetEffect is releasing its first wave of multi-gigabit Ethernet products. Until now, providing multi-gigabit connectivity has been an expensive proposition using non-Ethernet solutions. Alternate but proprietary technologies, such as Fibre Channel and InfiniBand, offer performance but require costly investments in training and specialized hardware and software. For those able to bear the initial cost, the ongoing support has been an undesirable burden, requiring the maintenance of multiple specialized data center fabrics for storage, server clustering and data networking traffic.
Now, iWARP is poised to change all that. The Internet Engineering Task Force and RDMA Consortium have collaborated to create iWARP, a series of extensions to Ethernet that virtually eliminate the CPU overhead associated with networking. Since iWARP is an extension to and fully compatible with today's Ethernet infrastructures, the resulting performance improvements come without disruption to the data center infrastructure or the cost premiums demanded by alternate technologies.
Related Channels: Ethernet, Storage, Funding

Video switching software and equipment developer SteelBox grabs $10 M
SteelBox Networks, Inc., an Atlanta-based developer of video switching software and equipment has received $10,000,000 in venture funding from Sierra Ventures of Menlo Park, California and existing investors. SteelBox's initial market focus centers on intelligent switching, storage and high speed access for large scale video surveillance applications and networks.
"We have high hopes for SteelBox Networks," said Sierra Venture Partner, Mike Scanlin. "The SteelBox team has developed a superior product that enables hundreds of video streams per system, compared to the tens of streams that competing products offer. Plus, the SteelBox solution can expand to support thousands of streams with storage capacity into the petabytes. Such high density gives SteelBox unmatched price/performance in the network video switching and recording space for large-scale video surveillance projects."
"Sierra's investment will help us in several ways," said SteelBox founder and CEO, Richard Howes. "First, we will be able to expand our operations to help meet product development and manufacturing goals for the strong demand we are already seeing in the surveillance market. More importantly, Sierra brings with it the business contacts and corporate relationships that will facilitate rapid growth in the surveillance market, as well as expansion into follow-on markets to capitalize on the broader video revolution.
Related Channels: Video, Switching & Routing, Storage, Security, Funding

3i, Amadeus Capital and Intel Capital invest in digital TV operator Aggregator
3i, Amadeus Capital Partners and Intel Capital are co-leading a £9 million Series A financing round for London-based digital TV operator Aggregator Limited. The funding will be used to roll out a series of products over the next two years.
Aggregator, founded in 2005, with seed investment from Amadeus Capital Partners, has since its inception developed some innovative TV propositions and secured a substantial content portfolio. The company now plans to launch a range of TV-over-broadband (TVoBB) services to the PC, which will target specific, underserved audiences in Autumn 2006. Aggregator will deploy an extended service planned for launch in early 2007, when it will integrate its programming with Freeview, the UK’s fastest growing TV platform, and make its services available on TV.
Aggregator’s TVoBB services will create a new UK pay-TV platform, serving multiple devices including PCs and hybrid set-top boxes. Aggregator’s on-demand broadband services allow the delivery of niche content to ethnic and special interest communities that are currently underserved by the television market and are willing to pay for specialist TV services.
“We’re delighted to have brought together a very strong funding consortium comprising leading venture capitalists 3i, Amadeus Capital Partners and Intel Capital,” said Aggregator’s co-founder and CEO Martin Goswami. “Their support validates our vision of what future content services will look like and makes it possible for us to launch and rapidly grow a truly unique television service.”
Related Channels: Video, Funding

Availigent closes $12.2M Series B led by Intel Capital
Availigent, a leading provider of transparent and automatic application virtualization software for Linux platforms, has completed a Series B financing of $12.2 million to fuel growth and new product development. Intel Capital led the round, with previous investors Diamondhead Ventures and Smart Technology Ventures participating as well.
"This will allow us to accelerate enhancements to our Duration(R) software product and expand our sales efforts," said Availigent CEO Bud Michael. "We are extremely excited to have Intel as an investor in our company. I am very pleased with the market acceptance Duration has received. Growing a company requires more than just capital and we feel this investment is a strong sign of industry support."
Duration from Availigent allows enterprise data centers to achieve 99.999% application availability, ensuring no more than five minutes planned and unplanned application downtime a year, with an inexpensive and easy-to-use software solution. Built on patented application virtualization technology, Duration is installed at the system level without modifications to the Linux kernel or to applications. Duration delivers stateful end-to-end migration and recovery of multi-tier applications, usually within seconds.
"With the growing global trend toward service oriented architectures and automated manageability, high availability takes on a new prominence in a broad array of applications," stated Steve Eichenlaub, Managing Director of Platform Technologies investments in Intel Capital. "Companies like Availigent are helping businesses realize the benefits of this trend."
Related Channels: OSS/BSS, Storage, Funding

CinemaNow raises $20.3M
California-based CinemaNow, which rents and sells movies over the Internet, has grabed $20.3 million from a group of investors led by satellite TV company EchoStar Communications and Index Holdings of Japan.
The investment doubles the total capital the company has raised since 1999. Previous investors Transcosmos, Cisco Systems , Lions Gate Entertainment and Menlo Ventures also participated in the financing round.
CinemaNow CEO Curt Mavis said the money will be used for general corporate purposes, including setting up a service that will allow EchoStar's Dish Network subscribers to download movies directly to their set-top boxes. The two companies hope to make the feature available by the end of the year.
Competition continues to heat up in the market for legal movie downloads. On Tuesday, Guba.com began offering more than 100 of Sony's Sony Pictures movies via Internet downloads; last month, the company started offering Time Warner movies and TV shows to rent and to own. Also, last month, Wurld Media's peer-to-peer service Peer Impact began offering a selection of movies and TV shows from both Time Warner and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox. Wurld already had an agreement to sell rentable downloads of movies and TV programs from NBC Universal, a division of General Electric.
CinemaNow, which sells both rentable downloads and purchased downloads, already carries movies from all of those studios, as well as from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC News, Walt Disney Pictures and Miramax Films; HDNet; Lionsgate Films; MGM; and the Sundance Channel.
CinemaNow's primary competition has been from Movielink, a similar service that is also sponsored by a consortium of movie studios.
The competition will get even fiercer if Apple Computer's CEO Steve Jobs convinces Hollywood to let him sell full-length feature downloads via his company's iTunes online store.
In response to the increasing competition, CinemaNow is working on improving download speed and quality to gain a cutting edge over its rivals.
Digital distribution of video is going to be a very large business, said Mavis.
Related Channels: Video, Funding

MobiTV grabs $70M
California-based MobiTV, Inc., the global leader in television and digital radio services for cellular, WiFi and broadband-enabled devices, announced the successful first close of the company's Series C financing. The $70 million investment led by Oak Investment Partners will fuel the Company's rapid expansion in response to the overwhelming demand for its mobile television and radio service across international markets. Oak Investment Partners' Bandel Carano will join MobiTV's board of directors as part of this investment.
MobiTV's products already reach more than one million paying subscribers across the globe who can now watch top news, sports, entertainment and music videos on their mobile devices. The Company recently expanded its product line to deliver the MobiTV® service to personal computers across WiFi and other broadband networks and announced the commercial availability of the MobiTV service in Latin America.
"We have taken tremendous strides to develop this rapidly emerging market across three continents over the last few years," said Phillip Alvelda, CEO, chairman and co-founder, MobiTV. "These rather substantial funds will help us capitalize on MobiTV's head start and position as the premiere brand in mobile television. We plan to use these funds to provide even more television content on more devices, across more networks, and in more countries around the world."
Related Channels: Wireless, Video, Funding

Shanghai-based Fangtek raises US$12M to develop mobile multimedia processors
Shanghai-based Fangtek Ltd, a provider of integrated circuit solutions for mobile phones and portable devices, has raised US$12 million from a group of investors led by Qiming Venture Partners. The firm will use the funds to develop mobile multimedia processors. Other investors include DFJ ePlanet Ventures, IDG Technology Venture Investment, New Frontier LG Venture Fund and Kibo Technology Advancing Capital.
Related Channels: China, Chipsets, Wireless, Video, Funding

China's HiSoft receives more VC funding
HiSoft Technology International, a leading IT services provider with offices in China, Japan, and the U.S., announced the completion of Series-B International Financing. The investment is led by Granite Global Ventures (GGV) with new investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (HK) Capital Limited and Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia Limited. The Company also announced the appointment of Mr. Loh Tiak Koon as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors.
Loh will succeed Mr. Li Yuan-Ming, a key founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HiSoft since 1996. Li, who will remain Chairman of the Board, recruited Loh to join the Company. The visionary Li shared, “HiSoft is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, we are very proud that we have achieved our first 5-year vision of being the top 10 companies in this space in Dalian and the second 5-year vision of being the top 10 in China.With Mr. Loh on board, his wealth of international experience will help propel the Company forward in the global market, and to achieve our third 5-year vision of being top 10 in the World.”
Loh brings with him over 20 years of global market experience in leading IT companies. Before joining HiSoft, Loh was Hewlett-Packard’s Corporate Vice-President responsible for Hewlett-Packard’s China and Hong Kong services business, which includes technical services, integration, outsourcing and consulting. A highly competent leader, Loh has demonstrated his ability to leverage companies and steer them into new growth mode, resulting in significantly improved shareholder value. During his leadership as Chief Executive Officer of Vanda Systems & Communications Holdings Limited, Vanda Systems merged with Hutchinson Global Communications and PowerCom to become a technology powerhouse. Loh was also Chief Executive Officer of Cap Gemini in Asia Pacific. He started his career at IBM, and subsequently Lotus Professional Services, serving various senior management and sales positions in the Asia Pacific region.
“HiSoft has a highly-skilled workforce and mature delivery capabilities, which build upon our experience as the first Global Development Centre (GDC) for GE in China, and on our track record running offshore development centres for other multinationals. We are in the best position to offer world class outsourcing and off-shoring services to international companies which target China as a domestic market and as an alternative service base to their providers in India” said Loh.
The new round of financing follows the Series-A investments in HiSoft in 2004, when investments were made by Granite Global Ventures (GGV), Intel Capital, Granite Global Ventures, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and JAFCO Asia. Series-B investment will be used to further strengthen HiSoft’s management and delivery teams as well as to pursue organic and inorganic growth.
With strong teams, proven processes and systems, and a strong financial backing, HiSoft is well poised to achieve its 5-year vision of being top 10 in the World. “As we progress, our clients will benefit from the value of partnering with a World Chinese leader, our shareholders will enjoy the financial returns, our competitors will see a leader who define a healthy industry in China and our employees will be proud and rewarded members of a successful company!” said the confident Li and Loh.
Related Channels: China, OSS/BSS, Appointments, Funding

SkyPilot raises $21M
California-based SkyPilot Networks, the leading provider of carrier-class broadband wireless mesh networks, announced a $21 million round of funding that will fuel its growth as the technology leader in the municipal Wi-Fi market. Primary use of the funds will be to continue to expand sales, marketing, engineering and customer service efforts for its growing customer base. August Capital, whose partners are well known for active investments in Adaptec, Atheros, Cobalt Networks (Sun), Grand Junction (Cisco), Microsoft, Seagate, Silicon Image and Sun Microsystems, will lead the financing. Current investors joining August in the round include Mobius Venture Capital, INVESCO Private Capital, Palo Alto Investors, Nexit Ventures and Selby Venture Partners. With this investment, SkyPilot's funding since inception now totals $68 million.
As part of the financing, Dave Marquardt, co-founder of August Capital, has joined SkyPilot's board of directors. Dave joins board members Greg Galanos, managing director, Mobius Venture Capital and Bob Machlin, president and CEO of SkyPilot. Dave has served on more than 25 boards of directors during his 20 year venture capital career and is well known for being the only outside investor in Microsoft where he remains a director after 25 years.
"In the first half of 2006, SkyPilot entered the municipal Wi-Fi market and gained immediate and significant wins in Portland OR, Aurora IL, Brookline MA and Foster City CA as well as being named one of the "Fierce15" Wireless Companies by FierceWireless," said SkyPilot CEO Bob Machlin. "We sincerely welcome Dave and August Capital to the SkyPilot team and the continued involvement of Greg and the Mobius team to help continue to build SkyPilot's success in municipal networks worldwide."
Related Channels: Wireless, Funding

Gear6 announces $10M round led by InterWest Partners and joined by USVP
California-based Gear6, accelerating storage and delivering real time performance, announced a $10 million round of funding led by InterWest Partners, and joined by previous investor U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). The financing will support the market entry of Gear6 solutions, designed to address the widening gap between increasingly powerful servers and constrained, disk-based storage systems. Deployed in the data center, Gear6 products eliminate bottlenecks and deliver guaranteed performance to existing storage infrastructures. These real time capabilities speed up applications, provide protection from peak load disruptions, and improve quality of service.
"Gear6 has designed a powerful technology base for solutions that remove barriers to speed and performance in the data center," said Khaled Nasr, partner at InterWest.
"Gear6 has solid technology and leadership and is ready to seize the market opportunity for storage acceleration," said Tom Shea, president and CEO of Gear6. "Aimed at the mainstream enterprise, our solutions dramatically reduce the time and complexity of achieving real time performance for critical business applications. We deliver unmatched capabilities, and do not require any changes to existing infrastructure -- this is true innovation. The financial support of our investors enables Gear6 to execute our plans and achieve a market leadership position."
Related Channels: Storage, OSS/BSS, Funding

Intel invests in BlueShift
Andover, Mass.-based BlueShift Technologies has completed a $12 million B round of financing that includes the participation of Intel Capital and existing investors Bridge Venture Partners and Atlas Venture.
BlueShift’s QuickLink platform offers the potential to increase the efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing of 300mm wafers as well as future 450mm wafers. In addition, the technology eases the transition from 300mm to 450mm in a cost effective manner.
"This substantial funding by major investors reinforces our contention that BlueShift's wafer handling system represents the future of semiconductor vacuum processing, providing significant advantages over current fab systems," said Peter van der Meulen, president and CEO. "The series B investment will accelerate our product launch activities and fuel our expansion in international markets."
Related Channels: Chipsets, Funding

ConSentry raises $20M
ConSentry Networks, a leading provider of secure LAN solutions, has raised $20 million in its oversubscribed Series D round of funding. Existing investors Accel Partners, INVESCO Private Capital, and Sequoia Capital participated in the new round, joined by new investor Duff Ackerman & Goodrich (DAG) Ventures. ConSentry's total funding now stands at $51 million.
ConSentry will use the funds to build a stronger worldwide presence as demand for LAN control and security solutions gain momentum in Asia and Europe, rapidly approaching the uptake in the U.S. market.
ConSentry's LANShield family of products, which enables customers to embed security directly into their LAN infrastructure, provides the full set of security features needed to protect enterprise assets. The LANShield family provides network admission control to restrict who can come onto the LAN, full Layer 7 visibility into all user activities, control over user access to authorized resources through role-based provisioning, and threat control to prevent zero-hour attacks from compromising network availability.
"ConSentry is leading the integration of security and switching in a market that hasn't undergone this scope of change in more than 10 years," said Tom Barsi, ConSentry Networks' president and CEO. "The additional funding will help us capitalize on the LAN security wave and the growing worldwide demand by enterprises for more security and control embedded in their networks."
Related Channels: Security, Funding

10G/40G photonics subsystems maker CoreOptics raises $28M
Gemany-based CoreOptics Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s optical networking subsystems, announced the closure of $28 million round of financing from new and existing investors, bringing the company’s total funding to date to over $68 million.
CoreOptics mission is to deliver innovative 10G/40G transponder subsystems products to overcome optical layer impairments using advanced digital signal processing techniques based on Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimator (MLSE) algorithm. CoreOptics currently offers complete 10G DWDM, 40/43G Single Channel Short Reach and DWDM 300 pin MSA transponder subsystems; including key building blocks such as 43 Gb/s Ultra-FEC, 40G Mux/DeMux for 4x10G client signals and Interface Converter supporting SFI-5s, SFI-4, XFI.
”CoreOptics has been in the forefront of developing distortion tolerant 10G/40G solutions which have enabled the next generation of open tolerant optical networks around the world. Our solutions deliver the highest level of Chromatic Dispersion and PMD Tolerance in the market today,” said Hamid Arabzadeh, CoreOptics President and CEO. “CoreOptics has successfully completed product introduction phase with a number of topTier-1 system providers and is now focusing on ramping up volume manufacturing to address the significant growth in demand for our products.”
CoreOptics’ 10G transponder product is enabled by the company’s MLSE electronic equalization engine that acts adaptively as part of the receiver to compensate for both optical and electrical distortions accumulated along the transmission link. CoreOptics 10G DWDM transponder product is in deployment with 15 service providers globally.
Related Channels: Photonics, WDM, Funding

CacheLogic grabs $20M
CacheLogic, developer of P2P traffic management, announced the closure of a $20 Million Series C funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners strongly supported by existing investor 3i along with syndicate members Pentech Ventures and The Cambridge Gateway Fund.
CacheLogic will use the new funding to expand sales coverage for the Company's established P2P technologies into new geographies and extend its product portfolio to provide support for the delivery of legitimate video content. CacheLogic is uniquely placed to facilitate the use of P2P technology for content delivery over the Internet by balancing the requirements of both Internet Service Providers and content owners alike.
CacheLogic was founded in 2002 and has grown to become the leading provider of P2P technology to the ISP sector and the authority in its field. From this position the next evolution for the Company is to bring its technology and expertise together to facilitate a whole new generation of content distribution over the Internet. The springboard for this evolution is its current suite of complementary products, which offer carrier-grade solutions enabling ISPs to achieve significant cost savings through the intelligent management of P2P traffic across their networks.
Related Channels: Video, OSS/BSS, Funding

inSilica grabs $18M from Intel Capital, Flextronics, Crossbow Ventures, Dow Ventures, and NewPath Ventures
inSilica received $18 million funding from Intel Capital, Flextronics, Crossbow Ventures, Dow Ventures, and NewPath Ventures.
inSilica was founded with the mission to provide advanced SOC & ASICs by using the best in class IP, design methodology, test and development systems. The company is focused on high volume - high value custom and standard product opportunities where standard flow ASIC providers can not meet the specification, cost, or time-to-market goals of the end customer.
In addition inSilica also provides highly advanced standard mobile imaging solutions to bring high end digital still camera quality to the mobile phone market at minimal cost impact.
inSilica is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with development centers in Slovenia and Bangalore, India.
Related Channels: Chipsets, Wireless, Funding

Mavenir raises $13.1M
Mavenir Systems has raised $13.1 million to expand its operations in the $50B convergence services market. The company plans to use these funds to expand its sales and operations teams globally by building on its core group of seasoned telecom experts from Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Nortel, and Qualcomm.
"Our product serves telecommunications' sweet spot -- convergence," said Pulin Patel, CEO of Mavenir Systems. "This round of funding moves Mavenir from the development phase into the deployment phase." Mavenir and its major manufacturer partners are enabling our carrier customers to offer seamless communication and entertainment services to consumers without overhauling their network. "Service providers who deliver True Convergence services before their competitors will have access to a large untapped market and posses a huge competitive advantage," said Patel.
True Convergence is more than just fixed-to-mobile network voice calls (FMC) or television delivered to a handset, it is the ability to deliver any communication or entertainment service continuously across any network to any user on any device at any time. Mavenir is leading the way to True Convergence by bringing together 50+ wireless, IP and multimedia technology experts, a world-class management team of telecom and networking industry veterans, and investment from Austin Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. Austin Ventures along with key private investors was also a seed investor in Mavenir Systems. Mavenir's growth plans include offices in Richardson, Texas, and Shanghai, PRC.
"There is already solid market-driven demand for convergence services," said Venu Shamapant, General Partner at Austin Ventures. "Mavenir's solution offers service providers a pragmatic way to get to market fast with user-centric convergence services by leveraging their existing infrastructure."
Related Channels: Wireless, VoIP, Video, Funding

Enpirion secures $20M
Enpirion, Inc., a leading provider of integrated power solutions, has secured $20 million in Series C financing led by BA Venture Partners. New investor Xilinx, Inc. also participated in the Series C financing. Enpirion also announced that Rob Herb, Managing Director with BA Venture Partners, has joined the Board of Directors. All of Enpirion's previous investors, including Canaan Partners, Columbia Capital, Intel Capital, RRE Ventures and SAS Investors also participated in this round. The new financing will be used to increase the Company's engineering and sales staff as Enpirion expands its product development and increases its sales and marketing resources worldwide.
"This round of financing will be used to significantly increase our presence in applications where we have demonstrated that our high power density integrated solutions can greatly improve both product performance and footprint, " said Mark Downing, CEO of Enpirion. "Rob's extensive operational experience in the semiconductor industry will be a great asset to the Board of Directors."
"BAVP has a strong track record in mixed-signal semiconductors and continues to like this sector due to its large addressable global market and strong economics," said BA Venture Partners' Rob Herb. "I look forward to working with the Enpirion team to establish their innovative power management solutions in a broad range of markets."
Related Channels: Chipsets, Funding

Shanghai-based VeriSilicon raises US$14.8M in Series C co-led by Austin Ventures and Sierra Ventures
SHANGHAI -- VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. (VeriSilicon), a leading world class ASIC design foundry that provides semiconductor IP, design and manufacturing services to customers worldwide Wednesday announced that it has raised US$ 14.8 million in its Series C financing co-led by Austin Ventures and Sierra Ventures. The Company will use the funding to finance the acquisition of the assets of the ZSP® Digital Signal Processor business unit of LSI Logic Corporation; as part of this series-C funding, LSI Logic will also receive a certain number of VeriSilicon shares as part of the consideration for the recent acquisition of the assets of ZSP. In addition, the investment will support the Company's expansion of its operations, sales & marketing and engineering teams.
“The semiconductor industry is undergoing a major transition; companies are shifting their focus away from implementation and are increasing their differentiation on creating complex system solutions; at the same time they are facing the challenge of shorter product cycles in a very cost competitive environment. Design implementation outsourcing is the clear model that will fuel this transition. Austin Ventures strongly believes that VeriSilicon, with its new compelling IP play, its existing service and production turnkey capabilities and its solid worldwide customer base, has the right mix to innovate in this space and the growth potential of to become a leader”, said Clark Jernigan, Principal at Austin Ventures, who joins the VeriSilicon Board.
Founded in 2001, VeriSilicon has since then experienced a fast, steady growth both in terms of business and worldwide customer base. Originally known for its innovative multi-fab Design Platform approach, the Company has added the capability and the right infrastructure to serve customers in all phases of the silicon implementation and has accumulated a track record in designing and taking to full production a variety of customer SoCs, achieving first time silicon success. Today, VeriSilicon has operational presence with many active customer engagements in US, Taiwan, China, Japan and Europe.
”Our decision to invest in VeriSilicon has been driven by sound strategic considerations. We view the combination of VeriSilicon and ZSP as a key milestone for the Company moving forward. ZSP’s existing customer base will continue to enjoy the benefits of the classic licensable, open DSP IP platform, while being able to take advantage of VeriSilicon’s silicon implementation and manufacturing capability. Similarly, the Company will be able to offer its existing and future customers, application specific building blocks based on ZSP, reducing their development risks and shortening their time to market. We are excited to participate in the Company’s success“, said Ben Yu, Managing Director at Sierra Ventures, who also joins the VeriSilicon board.
“I am delighted to have Austin Ventures and Sierra Ventures as our new investors. With their broad and proven industry experience, they are bringing the right strengths into VeriSilicon. This funding round is giving us the financial backing, the right vision and the strategic guidance to take our company to the next level”, said Dr. Wayne Dai, chairman, president and CEO of VeriSilicon.
Related Channels: China, Funding, Chipsets, Wireless, VoIP, Video

Clearwire secures $900M round Led by Intel Capital and sells NextNet Wireless to Motorola
Clearwire Corporation, a high-speed wireless broadband services provider founded by Craig McCaw, announced a series of transactions with Intel Capital, Motorola and Motorola Ventures to accelerate the development and deployment of portable and mobile WiMAX networks based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard. The transactions include Intel Capital's investment of $600 million as part of a $900 million private financing round and Motorola's acquisition of Clearwire's subsidiary NextNet Wireless, a leading provider of OFDM-based non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband infrastructure equipment. Motorola Ventures is also participating in the financing round.
Following closing of the transactions, Motorola will supply wireless broadband equipment for Clearwire's existing and future networks globally. To hasten the proliferation of mobile WiMAX in PC clients, Intel will work to enable the inclusion of WiMAX chipsets in next generation mobile computing platforms. All three parties will contribute significant research and development resources to evolve NextNet Wireless' pre-WiMAX technologies.
"The size of this investment from Intel Capital underscores our commitment to supporting wireless broadband using WiMAX networks in the United States," said Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani. "Our collaboration with Clearwire and Motorola builds on the foundation of previous WiMAX network deployment investments made by Intel Capital throughout the world to bring the benefits of mobile high-speed and content-rich Internet access to wireless broadband users."
"Wi-Fi has become an essential part of people's lives. WiMAX is next. It is rapidly moving from a technology initiative to real deployments," said Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president and general manager, Mobility Group. "As Intel plans the integration of mobile WiMAX into our Centrino Mobile Technology notebook platforms, it is incredibly important to collaborate with the broadband wireless providers who will offer WiMAX services. This investment in Clearwire will lay the foundation for high-speed mobile broadband services across North America."
As part of the transaction, Motorola will acquire Clearwire's subsidiary NextNet Wireless, one of the industry's leading fixed and portable NLOS wireless broadband equipment suppliers, for an undisclosed amount. NextNet's wireless access products are currently deployed by carriers on five continents. Acquiring NextNet broadens Motorola's global portfolio of solutions to serve the rapidly growing need for wireless broadband equipment.
"We look forward to accelerating the benefits of WiMAX low-cost, high-speed wireless internet access to consumers around the world," said Greg Brown, president of Motorola's networks and enterprise business. "Our acquisition of NextNet furthers Motorola's strategy to continue to expand and profitably grow our wireless broadband business and furthers our efforts in seamless wireless broadband mobility."
"Collaborating with Intel and Motorola significantly advances our vision for fixed, portable and mobile wireless broadband services," said Craig McCaw, founder, chairman, and co-CEO of Clearwire. "Wireless broadband networks will enable the creation and delivery of differentiated services and applications that enhance the way people communicate and experience the Internet."
"These agreements mark a significant milestone for Clearwire," said Ben Wolff, co-CEO of Clearwire. "We believe that there is strong demand for wireless broadband connectivity that is simple, fast, reliable and affordable. Working together with Intel and Motorola to deploy mobile WiMAX technology will provide us with the benefits of a standards-based platform, which will further enhance our efforts to address this demand."
Closing of the transactions is subject to regulatory approval and certain closing conditions.
Related Channels: Funding, Wireless, Chipsets, Mergers & Acquisitions

Sunne Wright McPeak named CEO of California Emerging Technology Fund backed by AT&T and Verizon
Sunne Wright McPeak has been chosen President and CEO of the California Emerging Technology Fund. McPeak, who is the current Secretary of the state's Business Transportation and Housing Agency, will take over her new duties in November.
The fund, which will be based in San Francisco, was created as part of the Public Utilities Commission's approval of the merger of San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc. and Bedminster, N.J.-based AT&T Inc., and the merger of New York-based Verizon Communications and Ashburn, Va.-based MCI Inc.
The PUC required the surviving companies, AT&T and Verizon, to collectively provide $60 million in shareholder contributions to the fund over the next five years.
The fund, whose 12-member governing board was chosen by the PUC, AT&T, Verizon, and the board itself, has the job of extending Internet broadband services to underrepresented communities in rural and urban California.
Ms. McPeak was formerly a Contra Costa County supervisor, President of the Bay Area Economic Forum and head of the Bay Area Council.
Related Channels: xDSL, Funding, Appointments

Metacafe secures $15M VC funding led by Accel Partners
Video entertainment site Metacafe has completed its second of round of venture capital funding, securing $15M led by new investor Accel Partners, with significant participation from initial backer Benchmark Capital. With the investment, Accel’s Kevin Efrusy, an investor in Facebook, will join Metacafe’s board of directors.
Metacafe’s worldwide viewers and contributors stream and download more than 400 million video files each month, making Metacafe one of the fastest growing video sites on the web. Metacafe, which has grown its revenues more than tenfold since the beginning of 2006 will use the new funds to open its U.S. headquarters and invest in marketing, contributor remuneration and new distribution technologies.
Related Channels: Video, Funding

China's MII provides development funding for TD-SCDMA, AVS, IPTV, WLAN and WAPI
China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) will provide funds to 21 development projects on TD-SCDMA, AVS, IPTV, WLAN and WAPI.
For TD-SCDMA, MII will allocate funds to support TD-SCDMA smartphone embedded operation system development and manufacturing; TD-SCDMA core technology and terminal products manufacturing; and HSDPA product development and manufacturing.
For AVS, MII will support development of AVD coder, code transmitter, AVS based IPTV top box and system, AVS based red ray high definition disk and AVS based chips.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video, Chipsets, Funding

Chinese online retailer Dangdang receives VC investment
Dangdang, China's version of Amazon, received a venture capital investment last Friday, probably the last VC investment before a long-awaited IPO on Nasdaq.
The investment figure, which Dangdang declined to reveal, was reportedly US$30 million and investors have 12% of dangdang.com now, according to sohu.com, quoting Li Guoqing, Dangdang's co-president.
dangdang.com sells heavy-discounted books and audio and video products online.
Dangdang, founded in 2000, has been planning to get listed on Nasdaq for two years.
The company will invest at least 400 million yuan (US$49 million) to expand further and will put more products online, Peggy Yu, Dangdang's co-president, said in a previous interview in Shanghai.
Dangdang.com has added products recently to its Website, such as yoga mats, nose-hair cutters and cosmetics.
Online retailing is a booming industry in China as about 20% of the nation's 113 million Internet users shop online frequently, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC.
Related Channels: China, Funding

Virtuos closes Series A round with Legend Capital
Virtuos, one of the world's largest outsourced services provider in the gaming industry, has closed a Series A stock financing round with Legend Capital, the independent VC firm under Legend Holdings, owner of Lenovo group.
"Legend Capital has made a series of successful investments in the outsourcing industry. This team has a unique vision for where the games industry is headed, so we are eager to share our experience base with them and help grow their business globally," said Xia Yang, Executive Director, Legend Capital.
In the 18 months since its inception, Virtuos has become one of the key players in games outsourcing with over 100 fulltime in-house game specialists. The company intends to expand the size of its teams as well as nurture a spirit of excellence to deliver the new service quality standards which the game industry requires to tackle the challenges of next generation game development.
"While Virtuos has been profitable since inception, we are excited to partner with a group as strong as Legend. We plan to use the new funding to triple the size of our teams in the next 2 years. Virtuos will also invest further in training, processes, security and IT to create a level of service never seen before in our industry," said Gilles Langourieux, CEO, Virtuos.
Related Channels: China, Video, Funding

Intel Capital's China Technology Fund to invest in 4 more Chinese startups
Intel Capital, Intel's strategic investment arm, announced on June 26 that its China Technology Fund would make 4 more investments in China, bringing the number of companies the fund invested in China to 12 since the fund inception in 2005.
Intel Capital mainly invested in the fields of mobile telecom, broadband, software application and semiconductor design in China.
Intel Capital has invested in more than 50 companies in China since it conducted its China businesses in 1998, including UTStarcom and Sohu.
Related Channels: China, Funding, Wireless, VoIP, Video, OSS/BSS, Security, Chipsets, xDSL

SANRAD closes $10M round
SANRAD Incorporated, a leader in the enterprise IP-SAN market, has closed a funding round of $10 million from Foundation Capital and other investors. Additionally, Ashmeet Sidana, Venture Partner with Foundation Capital has joined SANRAD's Board of Directors.
The additional investment will be used to accelerate SANRAD's market share gains in the rapidly growing enterprise IP storage networking market through expanded sales, marketing and support. A portion of the funds will also further advanced product development.
SANRAD has already garnered significant success since its inception in 2000. Customers are reaping the benefits of its IP-network centric architecture, which allows them to connect and manage the storage they choose. Within the last two years, SANRAD has increased its customer base by tenfold to more than 500 customers worldwide across a variety of market sectors including financial,