SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Yipes Enterprise Services, today announced it has completed its fourth round of funding for $17.5 million, including a $9 million line of credit from SVB Silicon Valley Bank and additional Series D funding of $8.5 million from existing Yipes investors, Crosslink Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, JPMorgan Partners, LLC and Sprout Group, a venture capital affiliate of Credit Suisse. In total, Yipes has raised $106 million in equity since July 2002.
Yipes (www.yipes.com), the leading global provider of managed, end-to-end Ethernet solutions for enterprise customers, said the funding will be used to accelerate the Company’s pace of expansion into new markets, as well as for the development of new products. As announced in February, Yipes posted its best financial performance ever, becoming EBITDA positive (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) during 2005 and crossing the 700-customer threshold.
“According to our research, Yipes is among the leading Ethernet service providers in the United States," said Erin Dunne, director of research at Vertical Systems Group. "Yipes is clearly an innovator in the Ethernet services industry and is uniquely positioned with its experience, technology and service level guarantees to address the requirements of medium to large business customers.”
With the ability to self-fund ongoing operations, the Company indicated it plans to use the funding to aggressively pursue emerging opportunities in the market. According to Infonetics, an international market research and consulting firm, worldwide Ethernet services revenue is forecasted to increase 280% between 2005 and 2009 to $22.5 billion. The Yipes network has more than 14,000 fiber route miles and reaches most major cities in the U.S. Yipes’ global presence includes an expanding commitment to the U.K., Europe and the Pacific Rim, including current locations in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
“The fastest growing segment in the telecommunications industry is Ethernet services and Yipes is at the center of this momentum. We’re enthusiastic about the Company’s unique value proposition, rapid growth and customer acquisition success, and we only see this trend continuing,” said Promod Haque, chairman of Yipes and managing partner, Norwest Venture Partners. “Yipes isn’t being held back by the legacy network infrastructure that has become a burden to its competitors, and we believe this will enable the company to capture even more market share.”
Yipes Enterprise Services Inc.