Round 2 for Openet

Benchmark Capital has committed $20 million second round funding to Dublin-based Openet Telecom to accelerate the company’s global expansion and allow for additional sales and marketing programmes to facilitate the international roll-out of Openet’s flagship product, FusionWorks. This is Benchmark’s first investment in an Irish company and the largest investment from its $750 million European fund to date.

Established in July 1999, Openet Telecom is a world leader in providing software that extracts customer usage data from telecommunications networks, supporting network operators’ business infrastructure such as billing, CRM and fraud mana- gement. The company secured its first round of funding from Cross Atlantic Capital Partners in December 1999.

Barry Maloney, general partner at Benchmark Capital, said: “In just two years, Openet has established itself in this fast-growing area of telecommunications and, at a time of turbulence in the market, has built a strong customer base including AT&T Wireless, BT Ignite, Essent and Nextra.”

The company closed its second year of trading with revenues of EURO10 million from US and European customers and will be targeting aggressive growth in the coming year.