- Infinity and JVP lead third round of financing
14 July 2003 Tel Aviv -- Native Networks completed a third round of financing, raising a further USD11.5 million.
Leading the round were venture capital firms Infinity and JVP. Other existing investors taking part in the round were Alta Berkeley Venture Partners, Anschutz Investment Company, Apax Partners, Delta Capital Investments, Israel Seed Partners, SkyPoint Capital Corporation, and Soros Private Equity Partners.
Native Networks offers flexible and efficient Metro Ethernet services over existing and planned fiber infrastructure. Native Networks provides advanced carrier-class connectivity platforms, designed for deployment in "first-mile" metro access infrastructure.
These platforms transport and aggregate Metro Ethernet packets alongside legacy circuits/TDM services in their "Native" form over existing SDH/SONET infrastructure, in a transition-friendly solution.
Native says its solutions enable carriers and service providers to increase differentiation and profitability by delivering a service bundle, including advanced layer-2 Metro Ethernet services such as Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS).
Founded in 1999, by Gilad Goren and Menahem Kaplan, Native Networks earlier raised a total of USD 28 million in its first two financing rounds. The company is targeting established carriers through its OEM strategies by partnering with leading vendors worldwide. In February this year Native announced its first OEM partnership with Alcatel Telecom.
Rami Hadar, Native Network's CEO said, "The successful conclusion of the round was enabled by a combination of leadership demonstrated by JVP, Infinity and the strong support of our series A and B Investors. Native Networks now has the runway to ramp up revenues based upon its joint product with Alcatel and in parallel complete the development of its Next Generation Add Drop Multiplexer the EMX3600 series".
"Ethernet is becoming ubiquitous, SONET/SDH infrastructure is immortal, and Native bridges the gap by enabling an evolutionary upgrade of existing infrastructure to allow carrier-class Ethernet delivery in Metro networks. Our products enable value added services such as Virtual Private LAN Services, Video Distribution and emerging storage-over-IP services"
Avishai Silvershatz, managing partner at Infinity, which co-led the current financing round said, "We chose to invest in Native Networks because we found a mature company with a product that meets the requirements of the market, strong management and sound relationships with leading manufacturers worldwide.
"Native Networks operates in a market segment, which it believes is now showing signs of a revival. We believe that Native has a good chance of boosting its sales to tens of millions of dollars a year in the near future and that this, together with continued building of relationships with strong market players make it a highly attractive investment."
"In an environment where communications companies continue to struggle for survival, Native Networks has developed a cost-effective platform that addresses carriers' immediate needs," said Laurel Bowden, general partner at JVP.
"Native's technology allows incumbent carriers to migrate their existing infrastructure from voice to data enabling them to create Virtual Private Networks without needing to build a new data infrastructure."
For further details, please contact: Colin Evans - Native Networks +44 1628 421707 or +44 7796 698460; Uri Meirovitch, The Koteret Group, Tel: +972 3 561 1424 ext. 118 or +972 54 987733; or Susan Lindner, Lotus PR Tel: +1 212 737 3160.