Red Bend raises $10M as it targets WiMAX market - Boston Business Journal:

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The investment round was the Waltham company's first in three years and will be used to beef up its salesw and marketing staff as it targets the youny but growingWiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) sector. The technology has mainly been used by computeer users to access the Internet from PCs and but as the segment expands it is increasingly being applie d to support many handheld devices. "We just saw this as a naturakl move for us as a said Red Bend CEO Yoram Thefunding -- which included prior investors of Coral Capital Management of Minneapolis, Carmel Ventures of Israel, San Mateo, Calif.
-baseds Pitango Venture Capital and Infinity of New York City -- will be used to boostt its head count, now 85 people, as well as its research and development efforts. Red Bend is alreadyu considered a market leader in providing products that enabl e wireless carriers toupdate mobile-phonee software without having customers visit stores or returnm their phones to the Of the more than 114 million cell phonesz shipped with this so-called Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) technologyh during the third quarter of Red Bend represented 49 percenr of the market. That share put it ahead of competitors (NYSE: HPQ) and , accordint to research firm .
Red Bend has raised $39 million in venture funds to Salinger declined to disclose revenue but said the company shoule reach profitabilitythis year. Salingerf said the nine-year-old company was initiallg focused onone sector, namely the cell phone market. But in receng years, Red Bend has entered new segments, including WiMAX. In February, the company's products were chosen by Chinesse telecommunications company to manage softwarew updates toWiMAX devices. It will take time for the WiMAXz marketto grow, Salinger said. "Thd adoption will be a bit slow," but it should pick up as more wireless carriers use it to connect devices to the he said.
Berge Ayvazianchief, chief strategy officer at Boston-baserd research firm the , said the WiMAX markey is fairly small but will grow rapidly over the nextfew years. Red Bend is "catching the marketg opportunity at theright time," he said.