Meru Raises $27M

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Meru Networks, the leader in infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise, today announced that it has closed its latest round of venture funding, raising $27.6M in a Series D round led by leading global investment and technology development firm the D. E. Shaw group. Other investors in this round include existing Meru investors Lehman Brothers, Clearstone Venture Partners, NeoCarta Ventures, BlueStream Ventures, Evercore Ventures and JumpStartUp Venture Fund.

In addition, two new members will join Meru’s Board of Directors, Andre Turenne, an executive of the venture capital unit at the D. E. Shaw group and Barry A. Newman, venture partner of NeoCarta Ventures. Turenne has 25 years of operating, technical and venture investment experience in the technology sector. He previously served as a managing director at NeoCarta Ventures and as senior manager of strategic investments at Intel Capital, and in various technical, marketing, and sales management roles over the years. An experienced strategist, Newman has served as vice chairman of the Technology Group at Bear Stearns, the head of Global Technology Corporate Banking for Banc of America Securities, the head of Global Technology Corporate finance at Salomon Brothers and Salomon Smith Barney and was founder and CFO of Anthem Partners, a boutique merchant bank.

“This round of funding will enable us to continue to expand our sales and marketing organizations as well as increase investment in further research and development innovation,” said Ihab Abu-Hakima, president and CEO of Meru. “Each of these initiatives will help Meru better support the growing number of enterprise customers looking to deploy and benefit from the industry’s most advanced wireless local-area network infrastructure solutions.”

Meru Networks Inc.