Fabless Azanda Rakes in $10M

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Azanda Network Devices completed a $10 million Series C round from its previous venture backers, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Commonwealth Capital, Goldman Sachs and Highland Capital Partners.

The latest funding brings the total raised by Azanda to date in its three rounds of funding to $54 million.

Azanda is a fabless semiconductor company that designs products for customers such as Siemens for use in their network infrastructure equipment. Company President Steve Dines, who spent eight years leading the mass storage business at Cirrus Logic, says Azanda’s products are attractive to both builders of network processor units and to system builders, such as Siemens and Cisco Systems.

The company projects revenue of around $10 million for the current year and has products in evaluation at a group of undisclosed locations.

Given the $54 million total of venture backing, the company is at the edge of the effective investment level model used by VCs for obtaining the returns they expect on venture investment.

That level of funding and the dearth of IPOs by fabless semiconductor companies at present may indicate that the company’s best hopes lie with the improving market for M&A by major equipment builders over the next two years.

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