Shoreline Floats In With $30M Funding

IP communications systems provider Shoreline Communications, recently, secured $30 million in its fifth round of private equity funding. The Sunnyvale Calif.-based company, which converges data and voice, was founded in 1996 and has raised a total of approximately $78 million, $28 million of which came in a Series D deal this past January.

Lehman Brothers led the most recent round, and was joined by repeat backers Crosspoint Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Foundation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, JP Morgan and Focus Ventures and Dain Rauscher Wessels Equity Capital.

Rusty Thomas, chief technical officer with Shoreline, said Lehman was the right choice as the lead investor because it understands the industry and has a commitment to the space. “They were intent on finding a company that was engaging in this. It?s a perfect fit,” he said. Additionally, during due diligence with Shoreline, Lehman brought in their phone experts, who were skeptics of the service. “They are now huge believers,” Thomas said, implying that Lehman could be a potential customer in the future.

Brian Paul of Lehman expects to take a seat on Shoreline?s board and that has created some excitement. However, Jafco America Ventures, previous investors in Shoreline, chose not to exercise its pro rata rights this round. But Thomas claimed Jafco?s reasons for opting not to participate had to do with internal metrics and nothing to do with Shoreline.

With already more than 120 employees, Shoreline said the new cash will be used for marketing as well as domestic and global expansion. The company is already seeing revenue of more than $300 million and touts customers like CNET Networks Inc.

Contact Danielle Fugazy: Danielle.Fugazy@tfn.com