Sonoa Secures Round B

Sonoa Systems Inc. , the latest startup from former Fiberlane exec Raj Singh, has raised a second round of funding to further its service-oriented architecture (SOA) plans.

One source pegs the second round at about $16 million, but Sonoa won't confirm that figure, nor are officials saying how much they've raised in total.

Sonoa did bag some strategic partners to help with Round B, though -- a sign that the company's technology is drawing some interest. Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) and the ventures arm of SAP AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: SAP), along with Japanese integrator Net One Systems Co. Ltd. , joined the round, which was led by prior investors Bay Partners and Norwest Venture Partners .

"There's general interest in the area we are working on. There's an understanding that the way we are working on it makes sense," says Ravi Chandra, Sonoa chief operating officer.

Exactly what that "way" is, Chandra won't say. But he's open to dropping a few hints.

Earlier reports had Sonoa working on an XML processor, or perhaps a more general language processor. (See Raj Singh Resurfaces.) These days, the company is talking more about SOA in general.

Chandra says the SOA question involves two areas: middleware and networking. Sonoa is tackling the middleware side but has staffed itself with experts in the area of networking. "So, we come with a different perspective," he claims.

Sonoa employs 70 people, 15 of whom are based in the United States. The remaining staff of 55 has been built up in India, mostly during the past year.

Singh, acting as Sonoa's CEO, has worked in several startups since the telecom crash, none of which reached the pinnacle that Fiberlane enjoyed. Built up during a time when all things optical were skyrocketing, Fiberlane eventually split apart into Cerent, Cyras, and Siara, which became multibillion dollar acquisitions for Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN), and Redback Networks Inc. , respectively.

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading