Aug 26, 2002 : Inkra Secures $30.1 Million in Funding
📅 - IP service infrastructure developer Inkra Networks (inkra.com) said on Monday that it has received $30.1 million in its second round of institutional funding from a group of venture capital firms led by Morgenthaler Ventures, bringing the company's total capital commitment to $66.6 million to date.
Inkra says it intends to use the investment to expand its worldwide sales, support and business operations to meet growing demands for the company's recently-introduced Virtual Service Switch (VSS) product family.
"The prime objective here was to have a strong balance sheet for Inkra Networks," says Sanjay Dhawan, the company's president and CEO, "so we could show in large customer discussions that we are working toward a strong balance sheet, and the whole issue of startups and their viability is taken off the table. With this second institutional round, we are able to show that to our customers and partners."
Dhawan says the company's focus will be building its sales and support channels moving forward. He says the funds will be used to build customer-facing activities, primarily increasing the reach of Inkra's direct sales team and partners.
Since the launch of the VSS products in April, Inkra has secured a multi-million-dollar strategic partnership with NEC System Integration, established distribution channels in Korea and announced a multi-million dollar sale to SAVVIS communications.
As part of the funding arrangement, Inkra says it will appoint Morgenthaler partner Ken Gullicksen to its board of directors. Gullicksen's background in Internet and networking businesses places him in close connection to Inkra's target market.
Gullicksen says Morgenthaler has been exploring the data center market through its enterprise IT investing venture team, and has seen movement toward re-architecture in the data center. He says a major point of interest was Inkra's involvement in virtualization.
"We decided the front end was where we wanted to do our investment first, because there isn't an existing dominant vendor, and there's a lot of little appliance companies," says Gullicksen, "So if you walk into a data center, what you see is a proliferation of appliances, and no clean, comprehensive management solution from anybody. Inkra is quite unique from its peers there in that it's able to rationalize that front-end environment and create something considerably more manageable."
Inkra says it intends to use the investment to expand its worldwide sales, support and business operations to meet growing demands for the company's recently-introduced Virtual Service Switch (VSS) product family.
"The prime objective here was to have a strong balance sheet for Inkra Networks," says Sanjay Dhawan, the company's president and CEO, "so we could show in large customer discussions that we are working toward a strong balance sheet, and the whole issue of startups and their viability is taken off the table. With this second institutional round, we are able to show that to our customers and partners."
Dhawan says the company's focus will be building its sales and support channels moving forward. He says the funds will be used to build customer-facing activities, primarily increasing the reach of Inkra's direct sales team and partners.
Since the launch of the VSS products in April, Inkra has secured a multi-million-dollar strategic partnership with NEC System Integration, established distribution channels in Korea and announced a multi-million dollar sale to SAVVIS communications.
As part of the funding arrangement, Inkra says it will appoint Morgenthaler partner Ken Gullicksen to its board of directors. Gullicksen's background in Internet and networking businesses places him in close connection to Inkra's target market.
Gullicksen says Morgenthaler has been exploring the data center market through its enterprise IT investing venture team, and has seen movement toward re-architecture in the data center. He says a major point of interest was Inkra's involvement in virtualization.
"We decided the front end was where we wanted to do our investment first, because there isn't an existing dominant vendor, and there's a lot of little appliance companies," says Gullicksen, "So if you walk into a data center, what you see is a proliferation of appliances, and no clean, comprehensive management solution from anybody. Inkra is quite unique from its peers there in that it's able to rationalize that front-end environment and create something considerably more manageable."
Reads: 1733 | Category: General | Source: TheWHIR : Web Host Industry Reviews
URL source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/ink082602.cfm
Want to add a website news or press release ? Just do it, it's free! Use add web hosting news!