Navini Nabs $30M

Wireless broadband startup Navini Networks Inc. has secured another $30 million in VC funding and won’t rule out the possibility of further investment.

Its latest Series D round of financing takes the Texan vendor’s total capital raised to a whopping $115 million.

Such a figure dwarfs the levels of investment raised by startup rivals Redline Communications Inc. and Aperto Networks (see Redline Scores $10M and Aperto Raises $20M Series D).

“It should be sufficient funding, but you never know what is going to happen in the market,” Navini’s director of marketing communications, "Cautious" Curtis Coats, tells Unstrung.

Coats says the funding will be used to ramp up R&D efforts from its 124 person staff and expand its “international presence” following initial trials with carriers in Asia/Pacific (see KT Trials Navini WWAN and Hanaro Trials Navini NLOS).

The marketing man is less effusive on other issues, declining to comment on speculation its OEM deal with Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) could blossom into an eventual acquisition bid by the Gallic incumbent (see Alcatel to Acquire Navini?).

Lehman Brothers Venture Capital Group led the latest round of funding. Existing investors Austin Ventures, Granite Ventures LLC, Sequoia Capital, and Sternhill Partners also contributed.

— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung