April 20, 2005 Santa Clara, CA -- Xelerated, a fabless developer of network data processors for metro Ethernet applications, today announced that it has closed a $17 million series C round with new investors Accel Partners and Amadeus Capital Partners. Existing investors Atlas Venture and Alta Partners also participated in the round. The company says the funding will be used to build out global sales and support, as well as to accelerate product development.
"With the backing of such solid investors and more than 15 customer designs hitting volume production this and next year, I am confident in our continued success," remarks Johan Börje, CEO of Xelerated. "We now have a fully funded business plan taking us to profitability in 2006."
"Tier-1 customer engagements in the high-volume, high-growth metropolitan Ethernet market convinced us that Xelerated will emerge as the number one provider of merchant silicon for this segment," adds Joe Golden of Accel Partners. "Their unique architecture and its ability to meet the demand for low-cost, feature-flexible Ethernet solutions clearly put Xelerated ahead of the competition."
According to the company, its X11 chip is especially designed for Ethernet equipment, and is the among the only network processors delivering cost-per-port equivalent to fixed function ASICs. The company says the chip has taped-out, with first samples shipping to customers in July.
"Xelerated is one of only four companies left in the high-end NPU market, from a field of about a dozen," notes says Eric Mantion, senior analyst at In-Stat. "Fortunately, raising $17 million now puts them at the right time and right place to enjoy the impending surge that is slated to grow the high-end NPU market by 101% from 2004 to 2005."
The market for metro Ethernet equipment market hit $3.8 billion in 2004, and is projected to double to $7.6 billion by 2008, according to a recent report by Infonetics Research.