Contact Information: Media Contacts: Pamela Valentine Sr. Director of Marketing Exalt Communications pvalentine@exaltcom.com 408-871-1804 x351 Liam Rose Sterling Communications for Exalt lrose@sterlingpr.com 415-992-3213
Exalt Communications Raises $15 Million in Series C Funding for Rapid Global Expansion
Investment by InterWest Partners, Velocity Interactive Group and Trinity Ventures Supports Worldwide Expansion Delivering Licensed and License-Exempt Wireless Backhaul Systems to Carriers, Governments and Enterprises
| Source: Exalt Communications
CAMPBELL, CA--(Marketwire - February 17, 2009) - Exalt
Communications (http://www.exaltcom.com), a leading provider of
high-performance licensed and license-exempt microwave radio
systems for wireless
backhaul applications, announced today that it has raised $15M in
Series C funding. InterWest Partners led the financing, joining existing
investors Velocity Interactive Group and Trinity Ventures, who were full
participants in the round, on the company's board of directors. Exalt will
use the funds to accelerate international growth, expand marketing and
sales to carriers,
governments and enterprises, strengthen its presence in North America
and continue expanding its robust product portfolio.
"Exalt is clearly well-positioned as a market leader with a broad and
compelling product line in a high growth market space," said Khaled Nasr,
partner at InterWest Partners. "With its innovative technology platform and
outstanding execution, the Exalt team has developed microwave radio systems
that enable its customers to break the customary bottlenecks associated
with wireless transmission of voice, data and video. In this time of
ever-increasing demand for the delivery of high bandwidth traffic through
wireless networks, the use of Exalt systems for wireless backhaul has
become even more critical to keep networks congestion-free."
In the four years since its founding, Exalt has successfully developed and
delivered an entirely new class of high-performance microwave radio systems
to more than 500 customers including wireline carriers, mobile operators,
government agencies and enterprises.
"The founders of Exalt knew that network capacity would become one of the
single largest challenges faced by network operators, and that wireless
backhaul would play a critical role in meeting that challenge," said David
Britts, founding partner, Velocity Interactive Group. "Their vision -- and
the technology Exalt had developed -- were enough to convince us to invest
early on, when backhaul was not perceived as a 'hot' investment. We made
the right decision then, and we are renewing our commitment to Exalt now
with an additional investment in the company."
"At the time of our initial investment, no one was interested in wireless
backhaul," said Fred Wang, general partner, Trinity Ventures. "All the
investment talk then surrounded Wi-Fi® and WiMAX™. But the founders of
Exalt made a compelling argument for the future of wireless backhaul, and
we were inspired to invest by their track record, confidence and excitement
for the technology, and well thought out business plan. Today, the growing
global market need for Exalt products validates the founders' foresight,
and we are pleased to increase our investment in the company at this time."
Exalt licensed and license-exempt microwave radios are available in bands
covering 2 - 40 GHz. The product family now includes Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces and the highest capacity 5 GHz radio in the world. The radios
feature guaranteed throughput, software upgradeable capacity, low latency
and native TDM and native Ethernet support. Exalt radio systems are
available in all-indoor, all-outdoor, and split-mount models, enabling
customers to choose the configuration that best meets the needs of any
given site.
"Over the past year, Exalt has built tremendous momentum, validating our
business plan with significant customer wins, partnerships, funding and new
talent," said Amir
Zoufonoun, Exalt co-founder and CEO. "We are poised to accelerate our
aggressive global business operations expansion and help customers
eliminate network bottlenecks as bandwidth demands continue to increase
exponentially across all segments."
About InterWest Partners
InterWest Partners, founded in 1979, is a leading diversified venture
capital firm focused on building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs
and portfolio companies. Currently investing its tenth fund, IW X, a $650
million fund, InterWest has raised more than $2.8 billion of capital since
inception. InterWest has 14 investing partners in Menlo Park, CA and
Dallas, TX, who bring together deep domain knowledge in life sciences and
information technology. www.interwest.com
About Velocity Interactive Group
Velocity Interactive Group is a leading investment firm that focuses on
digital media and communications. The firm brings a unique approach to
investing by bringing not just financial capital, but also human capital to
its investment companies. Velocity Interactive Group has a global presence
in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York, India and China. www.velocityig.com
About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures, a 22-year veteran in the venture business with more than
$1 billion under management, partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to
build great companies. Trinity Ventures focuses on early-stage technology
investment opportunities with a particular emphasis on the digital media,
Internet services, mobility, security and software markets. Trinity has
invested in more than 100 ventures, including such leading companies as
Aruba Networks, Blue Nile, Crescendo Communications, Extreme Networks,
Forte Software, Illustra, LoopNet, Photobucket (acquired by News
Corporation), Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies),
Starbucks and Sygate Technologies (acquired by Symantec).
www.trinityventures.com
About Exalt Communications
Exalt Communications (http://www.exaltcom.com) provides next generation
wireless backhaul systems for service providers and enterprises worldwide.
Exalt products are designed to solve the network bottlenecks associated
with the growing demand for IP-based voice, data and video applications and
the resulting migration from TDM to IP-based networks. With a flexible
architecture and technology-agnostic product platform covering multiple
market segments, Exalt provides a full range of carrier-class microwave
radio systems that meet the demand for a cost-effective and flexible
alternative to fiber and leased lines. www.exaltcom.com