Juniper and Nortel have jumped into the wireless LAN market by taking part in a $30-million D round investment in Trapeze Networks. Trapeze said it plans to use money to expand geographically, improve its channel programs and bolster product development. Nortel, which originally invested in Trapeze last year, has been selling Trapeze’s WLAN switch since early last year under the WLAN 2300 series brand. Before Nortel got involved with Trapeze, it used to rebrand and sell equipment from Airespace Networks until the company was purchased by Cisco for $425 million. Trapeze CEO Jim Vogt said the latest round of funding will help the company attract new partners and add channel personnel. "We’re seeing growth, and a key part of that is recruiting and maintaining a channel," he said. The other investors in the round include Oak Investment Partners, Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, DAG, and Castille, who added to their previous investments in the company. Trapeze’s technology lets users roam securely anywhere in a network and over any topology, including corporate headquarters, branch offices, campuses or multi-tenant/multi-use facilities. Update: With the D round, Trapeze has raised $102.5-million of private equity since March 2002. It raised $16-million in March 2002, $34-million in June 2003, and $22.5-million in 2005, including money from Nortel and Motorola Ventures. In terms of the Juniper-Nortel connection, Nortel chief strategy office George Riedl used to head up Juniper’s M&A activity.
Nortel, Juniper Invest in Trapeze
Juniper and Nortel have jumped into the wireless LAN market by taking part in a $30-million D round investment in Trapeze Networks. Trapeze said it plans to use money to expand geographically, improve its channel programs and bolster product development. Nortel, which originally invested in Trapeze last year, has been selling Trapeze’s WLAN switch since early last year under the WLAN 2300 series brand. Before Nortel got involved with Trapeze, it used to rebrand and sell equipment from Airespace Networks until the company was purchased by Cisco for $425 million. Trapeze CEO Jim Vogt said the latest round of funding will help the company attract new partners and add channel personnel. "We’re seeing growth, and a key part of that is recruiting and maintaining a channel," he said. The other investors in the round include Oak Investment Partners, Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, DAG, and Castille, who added to their previous investments in the company. Trapeze’s technology lets users roam securely anywhere in a network and over any topology, including corporate headquarters, branch offices, campuses or multi-tenant/multi-use facilities.
Update: With the D round, Trapeze has raised $102.5-million of private equity since March 2002. It raised $16-million in March 2002, $34-million in June 2003, and $22.5-million in 2005, including money from Nortel and Motorola Ventures. In terms of the Juniper-Nortel connection, Nortel chief strategy office George Riedl used to head up Juniper’s M&A activity.