SiNett raises $15 M in series B funding

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 22 June 2004, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: SiNett Corporation, a developer of groundbreaking wireless local area network (WLAN) packet processing silicon and software, has announced it has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The financing represents the highest series B round in recent times for a semiconductor company. The round was led by Clearstone Ventures and includes previous investors Matrix Partners and Alliance Ventures. The additional funding will be used primarily for expanding, research and development capabilities in Bangalore, India, and marketing and sales initiatives in California, USA. SiNett was formed in September 2002 by Shiri Kadambi, Shekhar Ambe and Shrikant Sathe. The company is developing leading edge, packet processing silicon and software for network equipment OEMs targeting seamless wireless access in the enterprise. Kadambi and Ambe previously founded Maverick Networks, later acquired by Broadcom, and architected the highly successful StrataSwitch family of enterprise switching devices. Enterprises today have seen the need for wireless networking and mobility in their workplace to increase productivity. This has become the driving force behind the increased demand for wireless networks and applications in the enterprise. With the Vision to enable "Networks without Limits", SiNett Corporation will be the first company to deliver a single-chip solution designed to power the next generation of equipment for unified (wireline and wireless) networks. The company’s silicon devices facilitate network equipment OEMs to lower costs, add compelling features and offer increased performance for wireless access products in the enterprise. "SiNett India R&D center has made a significant contribution to our product development efforts. We are very bullish on the expertise and capabilities of the India Engineering Center and plan to more than double our strength in India in the next 6 months. SiNett has seen strong interest from our customers for our WLAN packet processing technology. This expansion in India will enable us to accelerate chip development efforts and introduce more products sooner." said Shiri Kadambi, CEO of SiNett Corporation. "The India engineering team has been instrumental in chip validation, embedded software development and system hardware design. Moving forward, the added investment and planned expansion will allow us to strengthen our capabilities in order to undertake new, leading edge product development activities from design to deployment." said Anirudh Mathuria, Country Head of SiNett, India. "In less than 18 months, SiNett has built real support for its market vision among networking OEMs and has demonstrated solid execution capability. We are very confident that the company’s seasoned executive and technical teams can deliver for customers," said Sumant Mandal, a partner at Clearstone Ventures. "We look forward to working closely with SiNett as they establish themselves as a preeminent player in the networking market." SiNett’s ICs and software will be available in the second half of 2004. Leading network equipment OEMs are already exploring the potential for products based on SiNett’s silicon architecture using an FPGA-based development platform.