Chiaro Networks' Secures $18 Million in Second Round of Financing, Bringing Total Funding to $28 Million.Business/Technology Editors RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2000 Chiaro Networks announced today that is has completed its second round of financing for $18 million. Led by the New York-based venture capital firm, Rho Management, this latest round of financing brings the total funding to $28M. Chiaro is focused on the design and manufacture of innovative data switching solutions to remove the most challenging bottlenecks from carriers' optical backbones. This completely new class of product promises to allow carriers to deploy reliable data switching solutions with unprecedented scalability. "Chiaro's vision and proven technological breakthroughs in the optical and IP networking sector make this a notably distinct investment opportunity," says Joshua Ruch, Chairman 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. of Rho Management. "They have quickly attracted a unique team of recognized supercomputing, telecom, photonic, and IP industry leaders to execute a vision that will likely become an industry benchmark." Highly regarded venture capitalists, CenterPoint Venture Partners, Crown Advisors, Interwest Partners, Sevin Rosen, and Star Ventures, as well as Intel Capital, participated in the investment with Rho Management. "Chiaro has taken a unique approach to creating the next generation network using 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. technology," said Jon Bayless, General Partner of Sevin Rosen Funds Sevin Rosen Funds (SRF) is a venture capital firm that was established in 1981 by L.J. Sevin and Ben Rosen. SRF was involved in the financing of ArQule, CIENA, Citrix, Cypress Semiconductor, Electronic Arts, Lotus Development Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Vitesse. . "The unique value proposition, combined with a seasoned management team were key factors in our investment decision." "We are honored to have gained the attention of the financial and investment communities, and are particularly pleased that we have attracted these leading investors in our second round of funding," says Ken Lewis, Chiaro's President and CEO. "The diversity in the investors brings strong ties in the investment banking and technical communities." Intel Capital, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures also participated in the first round of financing, which was led by CenterPoint Venture Partners. About CenterPoint Ventures CenterPoint Ventures is one of Texas' largest 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] , investing in the areas of business-to-business Internet software and services; semiconductor; communications products and services; and new industrial technologies. Founded in 1996 by veteran entrepreneurs and former executives of Convex Computer Convex Computer was a company that produced a number of vector minisupercomputers, supercomputers for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Their later Exemplar series of parallel computing machines were based on the Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC CPU series, and in 1995, HP bought the , Mostek, Tivoli Systems and Texas Instruments See TI. (company) Texas Instruments - (TI) A US electronics company. A TI engineer, Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958. Three TI employees left the company in 1982 to start Compaq. , CenterPoint Ventures' expertise and funds have helped dozens of companies including Silicon Laboratories, Applied Science Fiction, and SiteStuff.com along the road to success. About Crown Advisors Crown Advisors International Ltd (www.crownadvisors.com), with offices in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , is a leading investor in private and public U.S. emerging growth companies. The firm's principals pioneered the concept of in investing in a mix of private and public companies on behalf of institutional and individual family groups in 1975. About Intel Capital Intel Capital, Intel's strategic investment program, focuses on making equity investments and acquisitions to grow the Internet economy The Internet Economy refers to conducting business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. An Internet economy differs from a traditional economy in a number of ways, including: communication, market segmentation, distribution costs, and price. , including Internet infrastructure, content and services in support of Intel's strategic interests. For more information, please see www.intel.com/capital. About InterWest InterWest Partners, founded in 1979, is one of the Silicon Valley's oldest and most successful venture capital partnerships, with nearly $1B under management. The partnership's investments target communications equipment, Internet e-commerce and medical technology opportunities. InterWest's information technology investments have included companies such as Ciena, Stratacom/Cisco, Copper Mountain, Lightera/Ciena, Participate.com, Xilinx, Silicon Graphics, Cyrix and Network Equipment Technology. About Rho Management Rho Management Company, Inc. is a New York-based venture capital firm with investments in the technology, healthcare, and electronic information sectors. Founded in 1981, Rho Management has been an active participant in the U.S. venture capital sector with direct investments in companies such as Compaq Computer Corporation (company) Compaq Computer Corporation - The largest US manufacturer and vendor of IBM PC compatible personal computers and servers. Compaq was started in 1982 by three ex-Texas Instruments employees. Quarterly sales $2499M, profits $210M (Aug 1994). http://compaq.com/. , Ciena Corporation Ciena Corporation NASDAQ: CIEN develops and markets communications network platforms and software, and offers professional services. The Company's broadband access, data and optical networking platforms, software tools, and global network services support worldwide telecom , Human Genome Sciences Human Genome Sciences NASDAQ: HGSI is a biopharmaceutical corporation founded in 1992. Its stated purpose is to "discover, develop, manufacture and market innovative drugs that serve patients with unmet medical needs, with a primary focus on protein and antibody drugs. , Inc., and MedImmune, Inc. Currently, Rho's aggregate capital under management in the venture capital sector is in excess of $300 million with a primary focus on long-term wealth expansion. About Sevin Rosen Sevin Rosen Funds (www.srfunds.com), founded in 1981, has raised funds totaling $1 billion. The firm focuses its investments on early stage companies that forge market leadership positions in communications, eBusiness infrastructure and solutions that exploit new business models such as those enabled by the internet. The firm has launched numerous successful companies including; Compaq, Lotus, Cyrix, Ciena and Citrix that have spawned new industries. Sevin Rosen has offices in Dallas and Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. . About STAR Ventures STAR Ventures (STAR) is a German venture capital company that invests in early-stage, high-tech companies in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Germany, and Israel. STAR focuses on companies that are already active internationally or are preparing to establish international business activities. STAR currently holds $590 million under management, and has invested in more than 100 companies, thirty of which are traded on the NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on stock exchange in New York, and the Neuer Markt in Frankfurt. The focus of STAR's investment interest is information technologies, with an emphasis on communications and the Internet. Additional investment areas include medical devices, enterprise software and industrial technologies. About Chiaro Networks Chiaro Networks Ltd., is headquartered in the Telecom Corridor(R) of Richardson, Texas, with design centers in Richardson and Jerusalem, Israel. The company designs and manufactures innovative data switching solutions to remove the most challenging bottlenecks from carriers' optical backbones. This completely new class of product promises to allow carriers to deploy reliable data switching solutions with unprecedented scalability. With funding from high-profile venture capitalists and Intel Capital, Chiaro plans to expand its staff in Richardson and Israel to nearly 150 by the end of the year. For more information, visit www.chiaro.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion