Calient Gets $27 Million To Take SDN At Light Speed

Optical Circuit switching company CALIENT Technologies announced it has raised a $27 million round of venture financing and named Jag Setlur, a 20-year finance professional, as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

CALIENT makes adaptive photonic switching with systems that enable dynamic optical layer optimization. Using 3D MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) and all optical switches in the data center means that without upgrading the switch, speeds can go from 10Gbps to 40Gbps and then 100 Gbps. To move into a hybrid packet-optical circuit switch network, optical circuit switches (or photonic switches) can be aided by SDN scripts to redirect data flows from one network to another.

Funding from new and existing investors will help the company advance its portfolio of 3D MEMS Optical Circuit Switching systems, extend its IP portfolio and provide working capital for its rapid production growth driven by new applications in software defined datacenter networking.

“This round of financing will support the exciting opportunities ahead at CALIENT as we work to meet rapidly growing demands for Optical Circuit Switching in software-defined data centers and metro networks,” Raza said. “With this funding and our recent growth, I believe now is the time for an experienced CFO like Jag to join the senior management team. I am pleased to have him on board and look forward to leveraging his expertise as we continue to develop and optimize the CALIENT product portfolio and expand our market footprint.”

Jag Setlur joins CALIENT from July Systems where he served as chief operating officer and CFO. Prior to that, Setlur served as CFO for Cotendo, where he closed two rounds of funding of nearly $30 million and managed the strategic positioning and sale of the company to Akamai.