Aruba Wireless Networks Raises $20 Million in Second Round Financing
Names Executive Chairman of the Board, CFO and VP of Sales, Inks Reseller Deals with Two Japanese Technology Giants
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, September 22, 2003 - Aruba Wireless Networks announced today it has secured $20 million in its second round of financing, appointed new members to its senior management team and inked strategic partnerships with two of Japan’s technology giants - Fuji Xerox Corporation, Ltd., and Network Value Components. The Company also announced the expansion of its operations into Japan, India and Europe.
The new round of financing was led by Trinity Ventures and included existing investors Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. The funds will be used to scale operations worldwide as well as for continued product development. This brings the total investment in the company to $29.5 million. Aruba said it has already begun generating revenue having shipped over 30 WLAN switching systems to 25 customers around the world since it announced general availability of its Wi-Fi switching system in June.
“After looking at the emerging companies in this exciting space, we quickly came to the conclusion that Aruba was best positioned to capitalize on the next phase of infrastructure buildout that comes with deploying large-scale, enterprise Wi-Fi,” said Larry Orr, managing partner for Trinity Ventures. Trinity’s investment portfolio reflects a who’s who in the communications and enterprise systems industries including investments in Crescendo Communications (acquired by Cisco Systems), Extreme Networks, Vitalink Communications and Network Alchemy, Inc. (acquired by Nokia).
New Senior Management
In addition to new financing, Aruba also named new senior managers to its team including Mr. Dominic Orr as executive chairman of the board, Mr. Duston Williams as chief financial officer and Mr. Dave Butler as vice president of Worldwide Sales and Channel Operations. Mr. Orr, 52, will take an active role in Aruba as executive chairman of the board working on global business strategy, strategic partnerships and channel-related initiatives.
Mr. Orr is an industry veteran in the computer networking industry and has held a number of senior management positions with Hewlett Packard, Bay Networks, Hughes Aircraft and Nortel Networks. Mr. Orr was previously the president of Nortel Networks’ Intelligent Internet Web Systems business unit. He joined Nortel through its acquisition of Alteon WebSystems where Mr. Orr was the president and chief executive officer.
With 23 years of experience in high tech finance, Mr. Duston Williams, 45, joins Aruba as its new CFO. Most recently, Mr. Williams was the CFO of Rhapsody Networks (acquired by Brocade Communications) and has held CFO positions at Western Digital Corporation and Netigy Corporation.
Also new to Aruba Wireless Networks, Mr. Dave Butler will have worldwide responsibility for directing sales and channel strategy for its new wireless LAN switching products. Mr. Butler, 42, has extensive experience and demonstrable success in building high-growth sales organizations and value-added worldwide channels for networking companies. Mr. Butler’s 20 years of experience also includes senior management positions with Inktomi, FORE Systems, Berkeley Systems, Network Systems Corporation and IBM.
As vice president of International Sales at FORE Systems, Mr. Butler was responsible for all aspects international sales operations. There he led the company to dramatic growth in revenue from $41 million to over $235 million in a two year period. Mr. Butler also headed the company’s Federal operations growing Federal sales 600 percent.
Wi-Fi Switching Takes Japan By Storm
Fuji-Xerox’s Network Business Unit and Network Value Components will deliver Aruba’s award-winning wireless LAN switching systems to enterprises throughout Japan. This includes the Aruba 5000 modular Wi-Fi switch (recently taking Grand Prize honors at N+I Tokyo), the Aruba 800 stackable Wi-Fi switch, the Aruba 52 dual-purpose 802.11a + b/g access point and the new RF Director suite of RF management tools. Wi-Fi Certified, Aruba’s WLAN switching system is fully-compatible with Japanese Wi-Fi standards.
The agreements solidify Aruba’s presence in Asia Pacific and point to strong demand for new WLAN switching technology in Japan. Aruba has also expanded its international operations, opening offices in Japan and extending its software development by opening a facility in Hyderabad, India.
Asia Pacific sales and technical support operations have been established in Tokyo, Japan under the direction of Mr. Takahide Sugimoto, Aruba’s country manager for Asia Pacific Sales Operations. Mr. Sugimoto directed Alteon WebSystems’ Asia Pacific business. Aruba has also named Albert Benhamou as vice president of Sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Benhamou managed European sales for both FORE Systems and Loudcloud.
About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube and Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
Contact:
Douglas M. Leone
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
leone@sequoiacap.com
