Indian American venture capitalist Mr Vinod Khosla has become such a household name for start-ups in Silicon Valley that his association with a firm signals almost immediate credibility and a potentially bright future. The latest to receive Mr Khosla's blessings is SS8 Networks, provider of Internet signaling and services solutions, that announced it was being sponsored by him. The San Jose, California-based company said it had completed its second round of funding in which Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is the lead investor. "General partner Vinod Khosla sponsored the investment and will work closely with the company," SS8 said.The round totalled $25 million. "We are pleased to team with such a stellar visionary who offers us an infusion of funding complemented by proven industry insight and accumulated wisdom," said Henry Wong, founder, chairman and CEO of SS8 Networks. Mr Khosla, who has been voted in some quarters as the greatest VC nationally, however, had little to say about his IT acumen and focused on his choice. "SS8 Networks has assembled an unmatched set of experience in signaling, telephony services, IP (Internet protocol) and network applications," said Mr Khosla. "This team is ideally positioned to execute the vision of the SS8(TM) architecture, which will be every bit as powerful for converged networks as SS7 was for circuit-switched networks," he said.
Mr Khosla has established an unmatched reputation in identifying and supporting emerging network equipment manufacturers. He has already backed numerous successful networking companies including Juniper, Corvis, Cerent and Redback Networks, several of which are founded by or associated with Indian American entrepreneurial talent. SS8 Networks provides a signaling and service platform on which service providers can build next-generation Internet Protocol Intelligent Network services.
The company has already attracted industry attention with its SS8(TM) Service Switch(TM) architecture, which enables scalable and high performance end-to-end signaling and services. Other investors in SS8 include the Woodside Fund, ONSET Ventures, CDP Sofinov and CIT Venture Capital. KPCB was founded in 1972 and has sponsored some of the most innovative and rapidly growing new ventures, estimated to have created more than 250,000 jobs, close to $100 billion in revenue and more than $650 billion in market capitalisation. Some of the other big names KPCB has invested in include Sun Microsystems, Excite@Home and Amazon.com.
-- (India Abroad News Service)
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