[nukkad] Indian tech firms rake in millions from the light

["Nelson Fernandes" <>]

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Indian tech firms rake in millions from the light
SAMAR HALARNKAR
New Delhi, August 30, 12:54



 August has been a lucrative month for India's tech diaspora in the US.

Close on the heels of a $421-million windfall for Amber Networks, a small
company founded by Indians in Silicon Valley, a slew of similar firms have
bucked the downturn to raise multi-million-dollar funding.

Amber's windfall and the liberal funding that other Indian firms have
received is an indicator that despite the downturn, all is well with
companies serving the Net as it continues down what experts believe is
possibly year five in a 25-year cycle to build the next-generation networks.

A quick rundown on the firms that reaped funding bonanzas in August, and the
technologies that allow them to do so:

Serial entreprenuer Jagdeep Singh took his company OnFiber Communications
out of the stealth mode in August to announce a $136-million funding and the
launch of its cutting-edge fibreoptic network architecture. "OnFiber
Communications, Inc. is redefining the fundamental economics of broadband
connectivity," boasts the start-up's Web site. It's a fuzzy explanation but
the only one the secretive company will provide.

Zepton Networks announced it had received $ 60 million in funding less than
eight months after it was conceived to build a new optical network. Its CEO
and founder: Jagdeep Singh. Vinod Khosla of top-VC firm Kleiner, Perkins,
Caufield & Byers, helped Zepton with its first round of funding, worth $50
million in cash. Two other top venture firms, Accel Partners and Benchmark
Capital, also participated in the round. "We believe," says Khosla, "that
this company is on its way to change the landscape of optical networking."

Maple Optical Systems - founded and run mostly by Indians - raised $40
million in third-round funding from a total of nine VCs. Maple develops
optical switching technology, which will be used in next-generation
networks. Founded by Phanindra Jujjavarapu, Sandip Chattopadhyay, Piyush
Kothary, Ravi Manghirmalan, and Ashis Khan, and is led by former Nortel exec
Bill Joll, Maple has raised a total of $90 million so far.
Another Fremont-based company, Cradle Technologies, raised $20 million. CEO
Satish Gupta, a 23-year IBM veteran intends to design a single-chip --
combining the capabilities of a traditional microprocessor, microcontroller
and digital signal processor - around which future devices will be built.
The Future And The Light Fantastic

These are companies that represent the future of the Net and of
telecommunications. The common features they share: They either disrupt
existing markets or create new ones altogether. All these companies are, not
co-incidentally, creating tomorrow's communication's networks based on
light, or optics.

Optical fibre refers to the medium and the technology associated with the
transmission of information as light pulses along a wire made of glass.
Optical fibres carry much more information than conventional copper wire and
is in general not subject to electromagnetic interference and the need to
retransmit signals.

Optical networks provide higher capacity and reduced costs for new
applications such as the Internet, video and multimedia interaction, and
advanced digital services. With the optical future looming, most telecom
companies are in various stages to making the switchover. That means a
windfall for the companies developing various components of the new networks
based on light.

Experts believe that optical networking components today are at the same
stage of development that electrical integrated circuits were in the 1970s.
Since it took about 20 years after the advent of ICs for personal computers
to become universal, it might take another 20 years for optical networks to
reach the mass market.

As TheNewsPaperToday reported earlier this month, Amber Networks,
headquartered in Fremont, California, with a development centre in
Bangalore, was bought out by telecom giant Nokia for $421 million. Amber,
too, is developing a robust router for the networks of tomorrow.

http://www.thebizpapertoday.com/tbteconomy/inside.phtml?NEWS_ID=25974


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