Innovance Networks, a privately-held optical networking company, has closed its Series B financing, raising over $55 million in venture capital from both existing and new investors. JDS Uniphase and Corning participated in the financing as key industry investors. The new funds will be used to support the commercial launch of Innovance Networks' photonic networking system, which follows the successful completion of testing and trials with several major North American service providers.
In addition to Corning and JDS Uniphase, seven major investment firms participated in the round, including Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), Morgenthaler, Thomas Weisel Capital Partners, Azure Capital, Banc of America Securities LLC, Kalkhoven, Pettit & Levin Ventures, and Archery Capital. The largest investor in this round was ATV. Jack Harrington, general partner at ATV, will be joining Innovance Networks' board of directors.
The Innovance Networks suite of agile, photonic networking products allow service providers to deploy "automated" core networks, say company representatives. The system replaces today's static point-to-point WDM networks with an intelligent, dynamic architecture that delivers "touch-less" provisioning. Innovance Networks is in the final stages of product development and the platform will be commercially available in the second quarter of this year.
"Service Providers are changing the way they think about core networks and are no longer interested in simply deploying more raw capacity," contends Dr. John Ryan, chief analyst at RHK (San Francisco). "Most capital spending is now success-based and carriers must implement solutions that deliver capital and operational savings, in addition to facilitating rapid and efficient scalability. Innovance Networks' agile, photonic network solution offers the prospect of real capital savings-defraying legacy network costs and enabling new services."
The Innovance Networks portfolio will be manufactured at the company's new operations facility in Ottawa, Canada. Diverging from traditional vertically integrated manufacturing models, Innovance Networks has implemented a 'virtual factory'. Innovance Networks will focus on core competencies critical to its customer base, primarily optical integration and system-level testing, and will leverage strategic optical suppliers and contract manufacturers for all other manufacturing activities.
Innovance Networks has over 310 employees located in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) and Piscataway, NJ. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.innovance.com.