Global Adoption of Navini's Ripwave Wide-Area Wireless Broadband Technology Accelerates
RICHARDSON, Texas – April 7, 2003 Navini Networks, Inc., the leading provider of non-line-of-sight, zero-install™, wide-area wireless broadband technology, today announced it has successfully raised an additional $25 million in Series C funding.
The round, one of the largest wireless venture rounds so far this year, brings the company's total funding to over $91 million. Austin Ventures, Granite Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Sternhill Partners, all existing investors in the company, led the new round of financing.
"In the midst of a very challenging economic environment, Navini has raised a sizable round under very favorable terms," said Alastair Westgarth, president and chief executive officer at Navini Networks. "That fact alone further proves the strength of the company's superior technology, valuable employees, solid business plan, and the confidence of the investment community. Given the incredible traction we are having in the global marketplace, this should be our last round of funding," Westgarth added.
Navini plans to use the new funding as working capital to primarily expand global sales and marketing efforts and further its research and development initiatives.
"Navini has clearly demonstrated positive momentum in terms of customer deployments around the world," stated Ed Olkkola, general partner with Austin Ventures and a member of the Navini board of directors. "Accelerating deployments in all geographies proves the Navini system delivers a rational, profitable business model for service providers. On that basis, we are confident of Navini's success and stepped up our commitment to the company in this funding round."
Over the past several months, Navini Networks has announced additional deployments and trials of its Ripwave™ products with the following companies: BellSouth, Daytona; IBAX, Italy; IntroWeb, The Netherlands; Liberty Technologies, Panama; Rioplex Wireless, Rio Grande Valley; Sprint, Houston; WINTEL, Trinidad and Tobago; and YourInter.Net, Indiana, Pennsylvania.
Navini Networks' Ripwave products use advanced smart antenna beamforming technology to deliver multi-megabit broadband data rates up to 8 miles from the base station in an indoor, plug-and-play, non-line-of-sight environment. The company supplies modems in PCMCIA card or small desktop form factors, which can operate in an untethered fashion anywhere within the service provider's coverage area - in a café across town or a hotel across the country. Advanced base stations and a robust element management system round out the company's offerings to service providers.
ABOUT NAVINI NETWORKS
Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, the heart of the Telecom Corridor, Navini Networks offers patented wide-area wireless broadband technology that addresses the world's need and desire for high-speed Internet access. Navini was founded by successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur Wu-Fu Chen and industry expert Dr. Guanghan Xu, and provides nomadic, zero-install, non-line-of-sight infrastructure to allow for anytime, anywhere Web access. Navini Networks' Ripwave™ products consist of a customer modem, base station, and element management system (EMS) and run in the 2.3 GHz WCS, 2.4 GHz ISM, 2.5/2.6 GHz ITFS/MMDS and 3.5 GHz WLL spectrums. Navini's solution results in a price/performance combination that is superior to other broadband offerings in the marketplace. To date, Navini has received $91.5 million in funding from top-tier investors such as Austin Ventures, Granite Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sternhill Partners, as well as Alcatel, Intel and Sanmina. For more information on Navini, please visit www.navini.com.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:
Michael L. Goguen
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
goguen@sequoiacap.com
