Aruba Wraps $42M FinancingAruba Wraps $42M Financing

Wireless LAN switch startup Aruba Wireless Networks has scored another $42 million in financing, which the company says it will use to grow as it adds more major customers to its portfolio.

The new cash infusion consists of $27 million in equity funding and $15 million in "debt and working capital," which the company says it will use if it needs to grow faster. Aruba has scored $59 million in funds since April 2002.

This new C round was led by WK Technology Fund (a Taiwanese VC firm whose portfolio includes WiFi startup Tropos Networks) and rounded out with cash from Aruba's existing investors (see Aruba Nabs $20M).

Aruba had originally said that it expected its last round of funding to take it to breakeven.

But Keerti Melkote, Aruba's VP of product marketing, says that now it has signed on the dotted line with big name customers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Aruba needs to rapidly add sales and support staff, which – naturally – requires more of the green, folding stuff.

"We'll need to partner with HP in the field," says Melkote. "We need to have the ability to be responsive to them."

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung