TeraChip, a developer of next-generation switch fabric, has closed a round of financing for $11 million secured from Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital. TeraChip was founded in late 2000, and has raised a total of $15.5 million to date, following an earlier investment of $4 million by Benchmark Capital in mid-2001.
“Switch-fabric silicon is an emerging market with tremendous long-term growth potential," said Joe Golden, General Partner, Europe, of Accel Partners. “TeraChip’s technology will help network equipment vendors dramatically shorten development schedules and increase product margins.”
Following the investment of Accel Partners, Mr. Golden was appointed to the TeraChip board of directors. Fellow directors include Nachman Shelef, General Partner of Benchmark Capital, Shlomo Rakib, Co-Founder, President and CTO of Terayon Communication Systems, and Micha Zeiger, TeraChip Founder and CEO.
TeraChip employs 18 engineers in its development center in Israel. The company said it would move its headquarters to the San Francisco Bay Area later this year. With this recent funding, TeraChip says it plans to recruit senior marketing, sales and applications professionals and establish these activities in the US headquarters. TeraChip will also recruit senior design engineers to participate in developing its next-generation products in the company's development center.
TeraChip has developed a capacity for switching and routing in a single chip, using patent silicon technology . Its multi-protocol solutions are especially suitable for local area networks (LAN), storage switches (SAN) and metro switches (MAN).
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 30 April 2002