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Ethernet over copper is a hot story, with Actelis following in the footsteps of rival Hatteras with a new funding round of its own
Actelis Networks Inc. announced a $22 million funding round Monday, reflecting investors' faith in the burgeoning carrier Ethernet market. (See Actelis Raises $22M.)
The round was led by Adams Street Partners, which will be represented on the Actelis board by partner Thomas C. Dolson.
The rest of the money came from previous investors, including ATA Ventures , The Carlyle Group LLC , DuPont Capital Management , Global Catalyst Partners , Innovacom , New Enterprise Associates (NEA) , Vertex Venture Holdings , and Walden International Investment Group .
Founded in 1998, Actelis, which now employs 100, has amassed $119 million in five rounds of funding. (See Actelis Draws High-Profile Investors and Actelis Raises $23M .)
The latest round is "earmarked for growing the company [to meet] the increased demand we're seeing," says the vendor's associate VP of marketing, Craig Easley.
Growing demand for Ethernet-over-copper technology was evident last year, notes Heavy Reading analyst Stan Hubbard. "We saw quite a few wins for Actelis and Hatteras Networks Inc. in 2006, and the revenue started to kick in late in the year for both of them," he says.
The biggest of those wins came in July, when Hatteras announced a deal with BellSouth, which has since been absorbed into AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). (See Copper Ethernet Snares an RBOC.)
Actelis provides gear for delivering carrier Ethernet over copper, sharing that market with ADVA Optical Networking , ANDA Networks Inc. , Ceterus Networks Inc. , Hatteras, MegaBridge , and Overture Networks Inc. -- some of which deliver Ethernet over fiber as well as copper. Either way, there's a mass of startups involved in this market.
"The pace of innovation is so rapid in the Ethernet market that anybody that doesn't get strong partnerships and a global footprint quickly is going to be left out of the market," Hubbard says.
Hubbard notes that Actelis and prime rival Hatteras have worked different sides of that argument. Actelis has corralled a widespread list of customers, a few that have been announced, and "a couple of pretty decent sized customers" that haven't, Hubbard says. (See ONI Picks Actelis, Easynet Deploys Actelis, and COLT Deploys Actelis.)
Hatteras, meanwhile, has been lining up key partners -- again, some of which are major but unannounced, Hubbard says. Hatteras, by the way, raised its own round of funding in June. (See Hatteras Announces Agreement and Hatteras Closes $21M Round.)
More information about the carrier Ethernet market can be found at Light Reading's Ethernet Expo Europe event, to be held in London on May 2 and 3.
— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading
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