Caspian Networks Reels In $85M Financing Round

Caspian Networks Inc., a new networking company, has secured an $85 million third round of financing, bringing the company's total funding to $140 million.

Original first and second round investors include U.S. Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Lucent Venture Partners, WorldCom Ventures, Vulcan Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Applied Technologies.

Prominent individuals reconfirming their investments include MIT media lab director and author Nicholas Negroponte, computer pioneer Gordon Bell, Internet co-founder Leonard Kleinrock, as well as employees of Caspian Networks. The two previous rounds of investment totaled $55 million.

Sharing the lead in this third round are investment bank Merrill Lynch and venture capital firm H&Q Asia Pacific. Other institutional investors participating for the first time in this round include SSB Capital Partners, the private equity fund of investment bank Salomon Smith Barney, global bank group ABN AMRO Private Equity and venture capital firms Global Technology Group Ventures, Acute Communications and i100 Optical Asia, a subsidiary of technology operating investor i100 Limited.

Caspian employees invested a total of $1.1 million in the third round.

Caspian Networks is a new Internet infrastructure company designing equipment for service provider networks. Founded in 1999, the company has more than 300 employees and offices in San Jose, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Washington D.C. The company will launch its products in 2001.

Edited by Evan Bass
Managing Editor, Fiber Optics Online