Matisse Networks (Booth 626) closed a $45 million Series C financing round to expand the sales, marketing and development of the EtherBurst optical switch. Merrill Lynch PCG invested $35 million in the round, which included Menlo Ventures, Monitor Ventures, Walden International and Woodside Fund. Matisse Networks now has raised total financing of $80 million.

“We are delighted to have Merrill Lynch PCG participate in this round as the largest investor, said Sam Mathan, chairman and CEO of Matisse Networks. The overall success of this investment round underscores the global opportunity for Matisse Networks EtherBurst optical switch, which saves customer 50 percent of both capital and operational expenses when compared with existing metro optical circuit systems.

The worldwide installed base of more than 400,000 SONET/SDH optical rings is incapable of meeting the bandwidth demand for packet services, created by high-bandwidth applications such as IPTV and the enterprises migration to high-speed carrier Ethernet services, said Matisse. For IP and Ethernet transport, these legacy SONET/SDH networks cost more to deploy and maintain than newer Ethernet over WDM solutions like Matisse Networks EtherBurst optical switch, the company added.

Around the globe, carrier investment in optical networking equipment is clearly beginning to shift from SONET/SDH to Ethernet over WDM, said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. Matisse Networks innovative EtherBurst optical switch is well-suited to serve a worldwide metro WDM market segment forecast to grow at a 19 percent compound annual growth rate to $4.0 billion through 2010.

Dr. Ray Mota, chief researcher and president of consulting for Synergy Research Group, added, Optical burst switching is a disruptive technology that fundamentally alters the economics of optical network design. Although optical burst switching technology has been pursued by researchers within academia and industry since the late ’90s, Matisse Networks EtherBurst optical switch today remains the only commercially available optical burst switching system.

Matisse Networks also expanded its global team by adding Doug Stewart, vice president of sales for North America Europe, Middle East; Shigeru Ota, vice president of sales for Asia Pacific; and Gouri Shankar, head of the Matisse Networks design center in Hyderabad, India.

Matisse Networks www.matissenetworks.com