The Series C round of funding was led by Crosslink Capital, along with existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, JPMorgan Partners and Sprout Group, a venture capital affiliate of Credit Suisse First Boston. In addition Gary Hromadko, a venture partner for Crosslink Capital has joined the Yipes board.
Yipes said the new round of funding exceeds the company’s financial requirements to reach positive cash flow in 2006. In total, Yipes has raised nearly $94m since July 2002. This includes the $9.5m Series A funding it received back in September 2003.
Yipes provides Ethernet services in the major metros in the US and the UK. Additionally, the outfit has interconnected its metros using its MPLS-enabled backbone to offer national and global area network services.
It was only last week when it released an electronic trading network program that provides access to Exchanges, ECNs, liquidity pools and trading platforms. According to Yipes, FinancialConnect! provides members with access to market information and services from trading providers including the Boston Options Exchange, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Chicago, Illinois-based Trading Technologies.
During the past two years, Yipes has tripled its customer base to more than 600 customers across a range of industries, including finance, legal, healthcare, education, media, high-tech and government. It provides services to more than 30 financial exchanges and trading platforms and 20% of the largest law firms in the US. The Yipes network has more than 14,000 fiber route miles and can reach more than 2,500 buildings via its Ethernet-over-fiber network and partnerships it maintains with other carriers.
