Automated fiber management firm FiberZone closes $12 million in funding

Automated fiber management technology developer FiberZone Networks has closed $12 million in financing. The company plans to use the money to accelerate the deployment of its remote fiber connectivity platform.

S-Group Capital Management led the funding round, and Vladimir Yakushev and Aidar Gabidoullin of S-Group Capital Management have taken seats on FiberZone’s board. Existing investors Novak Biddle Venture Partners also participated in the round.

FiberZone supplies automated fiber management systems for carrier networks and large data centers. The systems leverage FiberZone’s Latched Optical Coupling technology to provide passive connectivity in a remotely managed automated fiber management system (see, for example, “FiberZone releases new capabilities for test automation facilities” and “Software module automates recovery on FiberZone AFM”). The fiber management system can be used to reconfigure networks around failures or bring new links online without truck rolls.

“With this funding round FiberZone will embark on a rapid sales and business development expansion in developed countries as well as emerging markets to address the explosive growth of next-generation networks and data centers in the communications industry. The market for our products is experiencing tremendous growth, and we are now well positioned to benefit from that growth. We will be locating an increasing part of our operation in the U.S. in the next few months, and look forward to continuing to provide a strong value proposition to our customers,” said Yosi Lahad, FiberZone's CEO.

“FiberZone’s technology has solved a critical problem for next generation networks being deployed today by automating fiber management; thereby service providers can minimize network outages and restore service more quickly when they occur,” said Yakushev. “With very strong optical performance, a power-less latching mechanism, and scalable, low-cost architecture, FiberZone is a strong and significant investment in our portfolio.”