News Release
Broadband Over Powerline Co. Actelis Closes $23M Series D Round
Fremont, Calif. - Actelis Networks, which makes platforms that enable high-bandwidth broadband services over existing copper wires, closed a $23 million Series D round, said President, Chief Executive and Co-Founder Tuvia Barlev.
New investor ATA Ventures led the down round, which closed a week ago. Although Barlev declined to give an exhaustive list of investors, he did say that previous investors Innovacom, Carlyle Venture Partners and Vertex Management all increased their share in the company and new investor Dupont Capital also contributed. ATA and Dupont hold the biggest stakes in the company.
The original target for the fourth round was $15 million. It was capped at $23 million, although "there was more money on the table we couldn't take," said Barlev.
Actelis, which closed a $45 million Series C round in June 2001, has raised about $98 million to date. Its investors include Carlyle Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, U.S. Venture Partners, Walden International, Global Catalyst Partners, Vertex Management, Anschultz Investment Co., Salomon Smith Barney, meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I and Innovacom.
Actelis enables service providers, enterprises, military organizations, utilities and government agencies to deliver high-quality broadband services to customers and/or locations only served by copper.
Barlev said the company's platform provides fiber-quality service over telephone lines. "We're not competing with fiber. But our customers invested one hundred billion dollars in telephone lines, so it's natural to just use it." He said copper networks are underutilized.
The company began developing its now "heavily patented" technology in 1999, and delivered a product a year and a half later. But significant revenue didn't come until the last quarter of 2003, since which time Actelis has installed platforms in over 1,000 systems for 20 to 30 telecom service providers.
The company is active in over 20 countries but the U.S. is its leading market. It now has over 40 channel partners, including NEC Corp.
Barlev expects the funds to be spent on sales and marketing, partnerships and further technology development. The company has about 100 employees and will increase that number by 20 in 2005. Of the staff, 60% are in Petach Tikva, Israel, although heaquarters are in Fremont, California.
ATA Managing Director Hatch Graham and Innovacom General Partner Frederic Veyssiere both joined the company's board.