Acopia Networks Inc. has scooped up a hefty $30 million round of Series B funding as it shoots for a summer ship date of its application-intelligent data-center switch, which is still under wraps (see Acopia Raises $30M Round).
The latest round -- which brings Acopia's total raised to date to around $40.5 million -- brings the company two new investors, Star Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital. Also participating were Acopia's existing investors, Charles River Ventures, Accel Partners, and serial entrepreneur Cheng Wu, the company's (very wealthy) chairman.
The Chelmsford, Mass., company, found in January 2002, has just over 60 full-time employees. Chris Lynch, Acopia's president and CEO, says he expects to hire more sales and marketing personnel as it brings its first switch to market next month. Later this summer, Acopia plans to announce details of the product -- and, it hopes, customers. "It's safe to say we're preproduct at this point," says Lynch, who came to the startup last summer from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) (see Acopia Finds Another CEO).
Along with the funding, the company announced the appointment of Rami Kasterstein, partner with Star Ventures, and Zenas Hutcheson, managing general partner with St. Paul Venture Capital, to its board.
Acopia also this week announced the hiring of Brendan Howe as VP of marketing and business development and Philip Scott as VP of sales. Howe was formerly VP of marketing at Trebia Networks Inc., a storage processor startup that has gone through some turmoil lately. Scott was previously head of sales at Blue Coat Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI) (formerly called CacheFlow) (see Acopia Hires Two VPs, Trebia Gets Second Wind, and Is Trebia Up for Sale?).
