Astral Point Completes $40 Million Third Round of Financing; Silicon Valley-Based Investment Firm Backs Optical Networking Company.Business/Technology Editors SUPERCOMM 2000 CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 2000 Optical networking Communications between computers, telephones and other electronic devices using light. An optical network is far more reliable and has far greater potential transmission capacity than networking in the electrical domain. See optical fiber. pioneer Astral (language) Astral - A programming language based on Pascal, never implemented. ["ASTRAL: A Structured and Unified Approach to Database Design and Manipulation", T. Amble et al, in Proc of the Database Architecture Conf, Venice, June 1979]. Point Communications today announced it has completed a $40 million round of financing led by investor Bowman Capital. The company has received over $73 million in funding since its inception in October 1998. In addition to Bowman Capital, another new investor includes Essex Investment Management. The Sprout Group, New Enterprises Associates and One Liberty Ventures, all existing investors, also participated in the round. "We are excited about supporting a company that has a focused management team, impressive products and extremely strong customer interest," said Chris DePuy, general partner of Bowman Capital. "Astral Point has a unequaled approach to metropolitan optical networking because it has developed a new generation of optical systems that enable telecom firms to efficiently aggregate traffic from low-speed networks to high-speed optical ones." The funding will be used to further support the rapid company growth and to expand the development of new products. It also will be used to open up new market opportunities. "This round of financing further underscores the confidence of investors in our proven ability to make our optical networking vision a reality," said Raj raj also Raj n. Dominion or rule, especially the British rule over India (1757-1947). [Hindi r Shanmugaraj, Astral Point founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "It also will enable us to solidify our role as a major force in the overhaul of the existing telecommunications infrastructure." Astral Point has become a major force in revolutionizing optical networking technology. With numerous patents to its credit, Astral Point has announced products including the ON 5000 Optical Services Node which enables SONET-quality protection in today's more flexible mesh networks A communications network in which there are at least two pathways to each node. If one of the paths fails, the other is still available. A "fully meshed" network means that every node has a direct connection to every other node, which is a very elaborate and expensive architecture. . It also has announced the ONset optical network management system for its products. ONset includes a patented software "wizard" that enables service providers to add hundreds of circuits in minutes instead of months, and is so easy even non-technical users can successfully provision circuits. About Bowman Capital Bowman Capital, a premier Silicon Valley investment firm, specializes in both public and private technology growth companies. The firm currently manages more than $5 billion in assets. Bowman Capital's investment philosophy is based on intensive, fundamental research on companies in the semiconductor, enterprise software, communications, and networking industries. Bowman Capital's private equity portfolio consists of more than 47 companies, including Arrowpoint Communications (ARPT ARPT Airport ARPT Ateneo Rifle Pistol Team ARPT Adaptive Research Planning Teams ARPT Adenine Phosphoribosyltransferase ARPT Access Region Prediction Table ) Asera, Broadbase Software (BBSW BBSW Bank Bill Swap Reference Rate (Australian financial market) ), Ventro Corp (VNTR VNTR Variable Number of Tandem Repeat(s) ) and Sycamore Networks (SCMR SCMR Supply Chain Management Review SCMR Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance SCMR Software Configuration Management Record SCMR Symmetrical Compact Microstrip Resonator SCMR Service Control Manager Remote ). Bowman Capital was founded in 1995 and is based in San Mateo, California San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the East, and Belmont to the south. . For more information visit www.bowmancapital.com. Media contact is Elaine Nickleberry, 415 356 1010. About Astral Point Privately held and headquartered in Chelmsford, MA, Astral Point Communications is a pioneer in optical networking equipment for the metropolitan carrier market. The company has patented a number of industry-first technologies that are used in its new generation of optical access transmission systems. Astral Point's first product, the ON5000 Optical Services Node uses the patented "Self-Healing Mesh" algorithm, which helps carriers overcome the barriers to fast, easy provisioning in metropolitan areas by enabling first-ever SONET-quality protection and restoration capability in mesh networks. Astral Point's management system, ONset incorporates an industry-first software "wizard" that uses a knowledge-based rule set that enables service providers to add hundreds of circuits in minutes instead of months, and is so easy to use, even non-technical personnel can successfully provision circuits. Additional information can be found on the Astral Point web site at www.astralpoint.com. |
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