Israeli start-up FiberZone has completed a $3 million seed financing round. Portview Communications Partners and StageOne Ventures led the round, with the Heznek Program, the government seed fund for start-ups, participating.
CTO Yossi Arol and VP R&D Zohar Avrahami founded FiberZone this year. FiberZone develops automated optical fiber management solutions for fiber optic infrastructures and the provision, management and monitoring of the fiber layers. Arol, a former engineer at ECI Telecom (Nasdaq: ECIL) also founded FlexLight Networks, which recently raised $17 million in its third financing round.
Portview Communications Partners managing partner Robin Hacke said FiberZone's financing round was large for a seed round. She said, "Financing rounds in communications aren’t as small as in other sectors. It isn’t like software. Communications companies need expensive equipment and large budgets. A $3 million seed round is definitely a vote of confidence by the company's investors."
Hacke added, "FiberZone's concept is designed to solve a problem that many other have tried to tackle. The sector has been neglected, technologically. Fiber optics now reach buildings and physically connect end equipment. The fiber optic cable is spliced onto the end equipment and a label is then attached. This is how multi-million dollar fiber optic networks are managed. If one of the labels falls off or is erased - a probably occurrence - then you have to identify which cable is connected to which piece of equipment. FiberZone provides a solution to this problem, combining optics, electronics, and mechanics.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 4, 2003