Carrier Ethernet company Atrica today announced a $28.2 million round of new financing.
Led by Vesbridge Partners and GunnAllen Venture Partners, the round includes continued funding from existing investors such as Innovacom (the venture capital subsidiary of France Telecom), JK&B, and Investor Growth, funding from new investor AT&T Corporation, and debt financing from European Venture Partners (EVP).
Atrica will use the funds to expand engineering and operations functions to support rapidly increasing deployments of its carrier Ethernet systems at service providers, network operators and enterprises worldwide.
The company noted that carrier Ethernet is one of the fastest growing market segments in the telecommunications industry. Infonetics Research forecasts the Carrier Ethernet market to reach $2.6 billion in 2008.
Previous Atrica investors include Intel Capital, BellSouth Corporation, Bezeq, SBC Communications, Inc. (via Aurum-SBC Ventures), Saturn Venture Partners, and Telia.
Privately-held Atrica is based in Santa Clara. According to IVC data, Atrica was among the most highly funded Israeli start-ups. In Decmber 2004, the company made Red Herring's list of the world's 100 top innovative companies. Atrica maintains R&D facilities in Herzliya and manufactures at Flextronics in Migdal HaEmek.
In response to a question, Atrica marketing manager Umesh Kukreja told “Globes” that the present financing round was the last one planned by the company. “It took us a few years to get the markets to grasp our idea. We believe that this round will suffice to meet our business plans. If we need more money, it will be good news, because it means we’ll have to invest it for the installation of more systems.”
Kukreja added, “The market is absolutely ready for our products. The market for Ethernet switches is now $400 million, and will reach $500-600 million this year, with many strong players. Almost every communications equipment vendor in the world is working in this field, and many businesses are looking for the product we’re offering. Some analysts rate Atrica as the third largest company in market share in the field, after Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Alcatel (NYSE:ALA; Paris:CGEP).”
Atrica raised $27 million in its previous financing round in April 2004. The company’s cash burn rate is considered high, mainly because of the high cost of developing optical systems, including ASIC processors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 5, 2006
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2006
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 5, 2006
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2006