Bandwidth9 Inc. Receives $80 Million in Equity Funding
Source: Bandwidth9, Inc.
Fremont, CA. Bandwidth9 Inc. announced that the company has closed an $80 million round of equity financing. Co-led by Van Wagoner Capital Management and BlueStream Ventures, the round consisted of investors new to Bandwidth9, including American Express, Merrill Lynch Ventures, Munder Technology Fund, and Sands Brother Venture Capital.
In addition, all of Bandwidth9 s major shareholders participated in the round, including Accel Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Lucent Ventures, Hook Partners, and others. Bandwidth9 has created a technology that is anticipated to change the way equipment manufacturers will architect products for Metro-area fiber-optics infrastructures.
By inventing a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology, which incorporates both broad tuning and direct modulation, the company is developing optical transmission products that will allow remote, dynamic provisioning of bandwidth to businesses and consumers.
Hatch Graham, Bandwidth9 s CEO and chairman stated, "The successful closing of this financing round provides Bandwidth9 sufficient resources to carry out its mission of delivering solutions for `remote provisioning of fiber-optic bandwidth."
Graham went on to say, "Incorporating Bandwidth9 s technology into their optical systems, leading equipment manufacturers will be able to support the needs for bandwidth-on-demand (dynamically and remotely provisioned bandwidth) within telecommunications carrier infrastructures at transmission rates that only optical infrastructures can provide."
Tom Erickson, general partner at BlueStream Ventures, and former network technology analyst at Dain Rauscher Wessels noted, "Bandwidth9 s bandwidth provisioning features are designed to offer greater network capacity and flexibility, which will substantially lower costs for high bandwidth applications, and dramatically increase the demand for more services across a large variety of market segments."
The company intends to use the funding from the round to prepare for its launch of new products, as well as continue its expansion of production capacity.
Recently announcing upcoming products in the form of modules for optical transmission, the company has successfully achieved and surpassed several milestones that are unique in the industry -- Bandwidth9 is the only known company with VCSEL-based technology, operating in the 1550nm and 1600nm regions of WDM, while incorporating direct modulation at OC-48 rates and beyond, and while providing a monolithic MEMS technology for broad tuning.
The combination of these core technologies creates a rare balance of low cost manufacturing and high feature performance, not found in traditional optical transmission technologies.
About Bandwidth9 Inc.
Bandwidth9, a privately held company, located in Fremont, is a designer and manufacturer of tunable fiber-optic components and modules for telecommunications. The products are based upon the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) and optical micro-electro-mechanical structure (MEMS) technologies.
The company s mission is to develop cost-effective, next-generation, opto-electronic products and technologies that enable widespread deployment of optical solutions in metro-area networks. Additional information about Bandwidth9 is available on the Internet at www.bandwidth9.com.
Contact: Bandwidth9 Inc., Tom Williams Tel: 510/580-4600 twilliams@bw9.com or Margie Bennett Tel: 678/475-0862 mbennett@bw9.com
Bandwidth9 Inc.,Tom Williams
Tel: 510/580-4600
twilliams@bw9.com
or
Margie Bennett
Tel: 678/475-0862
mbennett@bw9.com
E-mail: mbennett@bw9.com
Web site: http://www.bandwidth9.com
