NexVerse: Same softswitch song, different verse

Unable to secure funding as ipVerse, the leadership of the now-defunct softswitch vendor has remade the company as NexVerse Networks with essentially the same assets as ipVerse but a cost structure that is designed to be more enticing to investors.

The idea of establishing NexVerse was spawned as it became clear that ipVerse would not be able to find investors willing to support its planned third funding round, according to Dharma Kuthanur, NexVerse’s director of product marketing.

“ipVerse had a good product, great technology and some traction with customers, but it had bad timing,” Kuthanur said. “In this capital market, the prospect [of a fourth round of funding] simply was not attractive for investors.”

While ipVerse’s overhead—including a work force of more than 130 employees—and debt obligations concerned investors, they remained intrigued by the company’s core ControlSwitch product, which has been deployed by wholesale long-distance provider DataVoN and SS7 wholesaler Illuminet.

Consequently, by founding NexVerse and puchasing most of ipVerse’s assets, the company’s leadership left behind a great deal of the baggage that spooked investors. But investors like Norwest Ventures and Kleiner Perkins were happy to provide $15 million in first-round funding to the new company, which has only 61 employees, Kuthanur said.

Currently, NexVerse is in lab and field trials with global carriers, IXCs and business-oriented CLECs, Kuthanur said. The company is not pursuing OSMINE certification but will if it finds an incumbent carrier interested in its products.

Meanwhile, the softswitch vendor this week announced a partnership with with CRM solution provider White Pajama to offer IP-based contact-center solutions to service providers.