$9.5M Lands on Roving Planet$9.5M Lands on Roving Planet

WLAN management solutions provider Roving Planet raises $9.5M in its first institutional round, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Appian Ventures

January 6, 2004

3 Min Read

BOULDER, Colo. -- Roving Planet, a leading provider of management, control, and integration solutions for enterprise wireless LANs (WLANs), today announced it has secured $9.5 million in its first institutional round of financing. Appian Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), the leader in seed and early stage venture capital with more than $3 billion in capital, led the round. Appian Ventures is a Colorado-based early-stage venture capital investor focused on enterprise applications and infrastructure software.

Other investors include Wolf Ventures, a Colorado-based early-stage venture capital firm, and Cardinal Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital investor in wireless communications, enterprise software, and Internet infrastructure companies. Don Parsons of Appian, Raj Atluru from DFJ, Cardinal's Derek Blezinski and Jim Conboy from Wolf will be active as members or observers on Roving Planet's Board of Directors. Cascadia Capital, a national investment bank specializing in a number of market sectors including Information Technology and Communications, assisted Roving Planet to secure the financing.

Roving Planet will use the funds to expand its reach globally, service its rapidly growing customer base, and further enhance its comprehensive WLAN management platform, Central Site Director(TM).

"We have been especially pleased with our progress to date and this additional funding led by one of the largest and most prestigious venture capital firms is a testament to our momentum in the rapidly growing enterprise WLAN market," said Greg Mesch, CEO of Roving Planet. "Roving Planet has clearly established itself among leading VARs and solution providers and in multiple vertical market segments, and we will continue to successfully address enterprise requirements for a comprehensive management, control and integration solution for even the most complex WLANs."

The funding, one of the top 10 rounds invested in a Colorado-based IT company this year, follows an impressive year of growth at Roving Planet, which deployed its first production WLAN management platform at the University of Wyoming in May and has since implemented dozens of deployments in a variety of complex enterprise environments, including LaGuardia International Airport, University of Nebraska, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, CH2M Hill International/Communications Group, Sacramento International Airport, Vail Mountain School and Rockford Corporation.

"Draper Fisher Jurvetson recognizes the enormous opportunity for growth and leadership in the WLAN market, and we see tremendous value in WLAN management solutions that meet the unique needs of large enterprises," said Raj Atluru, Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "Roving Planet stood out among companies offering competitive solutions because of its differentiated OSI Layer 2 software solution, its seasoned executive team and the remarkable traction its product has garnered in a short time frame among leading VARs and in a variety of complex enterprise environments."

"Large enterprises, VARs and service providers require a comprehensive solution for their WLAN management requirements that can also integrate easily with existing enterprise systems and applications," said Don Parsons, Managing Director of Appian Ventures. "Roving Planet stands out in today's crowded WLAN market because it offers the broadest feature set, and it is the only WLAN management solution with a true open architecture and focus on back-end integration."

Roving Planet Inc.

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