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Matisse Networks Raises $45M to Accelerate Global Adoption of the MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 10, 2007—Matisse Networks, the leader in optical burst switching, today announced that it has closed a $45M Series C financing round to expand the sales, marketing and development of the EtherBurst optical switch. Merrill Lynch PCG invested $35M in the round, which included all existing investors including Menlo Ventures, Monitor Ventures, Walden International and Woodside Fund. To date, Matisse Networks has raised total financing of $80M. ”We are delighted to have Merrill Lynch PCG participate in this round as the largest investor,” said Sam Mathan, chairman and CEO of Matisse Networks. “The overall success of this investment round underscores the global opportunity for Matisse Networks’ EtherBurst optical switch which saves customer 50% of both capital and operational expenses when compared with existing metro optical circuit systems.” The worldwide installed base of over 400,000 synchronous optical network and synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) optical rings are incapable of meeting the bandwidth demand for packet services created by both the consumer’s appetite for high bandwidth applications such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and the enterprise’s migration to high speed carrier Ethernet services. For IP and Ethernet transport, these legacy SONET/SDH networks cost far more to deploy and maintain than newer Ethernet over wave division multiplexing (WDM) solutions like Matisse Networks’ EtherBurst optical switch. “Around the globe, carrier investment in optical networking equipment is clearly beginning to shift from SONET/SDH to Ethernet over WDM,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. “Matisse Networks’ innovative EtherBurst optical switch is well suited to serve a worldwide metro WDM market segment forecast to grow at a 19% compound annual growth rate to $4.0B through 2010.” “Optical burst switching is a disruptive technology that fundamentally alters the economics of optical network design,” said Dr. Ray Mota, chief researcher and president of consulting for Synergy Research Group. “Although optical burst switching technology has been pursued by researchers within academia and industry since the late 90’s, Matisse Networks’ EtherBurst optical switch today remains the only commercially available optical burst switching system.” Matisse Networks also announced the following key additions to its team-- Doug Stewart, vice president of sales for North America Europe, Middle East; Shigeru Ota, vice president sales for Asia Pacific; and Gouri Shankar, head of the Matisse Networks design center in Hyderabad, India. About Matisse Networks Matisse Networks is named after Henri Matisse, the famous painter known as the “Master of Color”. Like the painter, Matisse Networks is mastering the colors of light to pioneer the field of optical burst switching. Matisse Networks’ EtherBurst is the industry’s first optical burst switch, purpose-built for scaling metro aggregation networks from 10 to 640 Gbps. Recognized as a Network World “Top 10 Startups to Watch”, a “Red Herring 100 Private Company”, and Telecommunications Magazine’s “Product of the Month”, additional information on Matisse Networks is available at http://www.matissenetworks.com. Matisse Networks, EtherBurst, and MeshWave are trademarks of Matisse Networks, Inc. |
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