SiNett gets $15 million second-round funding

SiNett Corporation, a US-based developer of wireless local area network (WLAN) packet processing silicon and software, has secured $15 million of second round funding.

This round of funding was led by Clearstone Ventures and includes previous investors namely Matrix Partners and Alliance Ventures.

Founded in 2002, SiNett is developing leading edge, WLAN packet processing silicon and software for network equipment original equipment manufacturers. This facilitates seamless wireless access in the enterprise.

In May 2003, the company had secured its first round of funding to the tune of $8 million.

The second round funding is mainly to expand its research and development (R&D) capabilities in Bangalore as well as the marketing and sales initiatives in California.

"SiNett's Indian R&D centre has made a significant contribution to our product development efforts. We are bullish on the expertise and capabilities of the Indian engineering Centre. We have seen strong interest from our customers for our WLAN packet processing technology," said Shiri Kadambi, chief executive officer, SiNett Corporation.

Kadambi has also made an additional investment of $2 million as his personal commitment to the company.

SiNett employs nearly 40 people in Bangalore where its software development centre is located. The company plans to increase its headcount to 120 people by the end of this year.

This expansion in India is expected to enable the company to accelerate chip development efforts and introduce more products.

Kadambi feels that WLAN, which was initially deployed in companies as a separate overlay network, is now being absorbed into the unified network.

Hence, WLAN will continue to focus on software development in WLAN to complete chip development company in the long term.

Unlike competitors, SiNett offers its WLAN solutions on a single chip and offers them at one-fourth the cost.

Having secured this second round funding, the company is looking at generating revenues in the next year. Even though another round of funding is not far off, Kadambi said the size of funding in the third round will be much lesser.

SiNett's product, along with its software, will be available in the second half of 2004.

Interestingly, the company is already working with clients to develop WLAN solutions, much before the actual launch of its product.