Astute Networks Receives $16 Million Funding From USVP, BA Venture Partners and Windward Ventures.Business Editors & High-Tech Writers SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2001 Content-Processing Silicon Solutions to Dramatically Improve Internet Performance Astute Networks Inc., San Diego's newest network semiconductor startup, today announced it has secured $16 million in first-round venture capital funding from top tier investment firms U.S. Venture Partners, Bank of America
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. Venture Partners and Windward Ventures. The financing will be used to develop a new class of network content processors deployed in multiple Gigabit and 10 Gigabit network systems. Astute Networks is developing a new architecture that allows Internet infrastructure manufacturers to use higher levels of intelligence in delivering content to the end user. Astute Networks sees a widening gap for high-performance networking systems that cannot be solved by future generations of general-purpose network processors. The company's novel system architectural approach redefines the limits of high-performance intelligent network solutions without the need for significant software development by network equipment manufacturers. Astute's semiconductor products will dramatically increase the performance of Web switches, appliances and storage by one to two orders of magnitude while speeding time to market and reducing engineering, manufacturing and system costs. These systems include content networking systems, traffic managers, security boxes, cache servers, Web switches and storage over IP solutions. "The movement toward consumer broadband access See broadband and wireless broadband. , multimedia Web traffic such as streaming video A one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. , and increased need for secure communications are generating a demand for higher velocity delivery systems," said Roger Moyers, 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. and president of Astute Networks. "Having developed high performance network systems previously, we knew that next generation Internet See Internet2. systems would run into a significant performance bottleneck without a major shift in architecture design. Today, our intelligent content processing represents a paradigm shift A dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented. For example, accessing applications and data from the Web instead of from local servers is a paradigm shift. See paradigm. for next-generation Web traffic processors." "At USVP USVP United States Venture Partners , we are very excited about Astute Networks' leadership position in a technology that will be key to further build-out of Internet data centers," said Irwin Federman, general partner at U.S. Venture Partners. "We're impressed with the executive management's vision and experience. Their understanding of network bottlenecks and silicon solutions brings a timely answer to many Internet questions and offers an excellent investment venue for USVP." BA Venture Partners has enjoyed a strong relationship with the founders of Astute Networks. "As the lead investor in their previous start-up, we know Roger Moyers and Fazil Osman very well, and are delighted to back them again," said John Dougery of BA Venture Partners. "Roger and Fazil were founders of a successful network device firm whose products were the first to be developed for switched Gigabit Ethernet An Ethernet standard that transmits at 1 Gbps. Used mostly to connect high-end workstations and servers as well as for network backbones, Gigabit Ethernet transmits full duplex from point to point using switches and half duplex in a shared environment (CSMA/CD) using a hub. systems. Our previous success with them, and trust in their development expertise was a major influence on our investment decision." Federman, along with John Dougery, managing director at BA Venture Partners and Jim Cole, Windward Venture Partners managing partner, will join the Astute Networks board of directors. About U.S. Venture Partners U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is one of the largest and most active early stage venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] in the country with over $2.5 billion raised since 1981. USVP invests in a diversified portfolio of technology and health care related companies with a focus on the Internet, communications, semiconductor and software industries. Notable USVP investments include Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , AMCC AMCC Applied Micro Circuits Corporation AMCC Air Mobility Control Center AMCC Ashore Mobile Contingency Communications AMCC Advanced Materials Commercialization Center AMCC allied movement coordination center (US DoD) , Stratacom/Cisco, Checkpoint Software and Blue Martini Software Blue Martini Software (Blue Martini Software, Inc.) was a privately held software manufacturer and professional services provider based in San Mateo, California that sells and supports an eponymous e-commerce enterprise application that supports sales online, by phone, and at the . For more information, visit www.usvp.com About BA Venture Partners BA Venture Partners is a $500 million venture capital partnership, whose sole limited partner is Bank of America. BA Venture Partners invests in early stage companies in broadband and wireless communications wireless communications System using radio-frequency, infrared, microwave, or other types of electromagnetic or acoustic waves in place of wires, cables, or fibre optics to transmit signals or data. , Internet infrastructure software and services and biotechnology. For more information, visit www.baventurepartners.com About Windward Ventures Windward Ventures is a classic venture capital partnership organized in 1997 to produce superior investment returns by providing capital and management assistance to early stage, high growth companies in Southern California. For more information, visit www.windwardventures.com About Astute Networks Founded in 2000 by experienced network architects and respected semiconductor executives, Astute Networks is a fabless semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in San Marcos, Calif. The company is developing content-processing silicon devices that empower a new generation of communications equipment with unsurpassed intelligence and performance. The Astute Networks semiconductor engines will become the core of data communications products and network storage appliances developed by leading OEMs. For more information, visit www.astutenetworks.com or call 760/736-3663. |
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