SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mobile broadband gateway provider Stoke, Inc. today announced it has received $17 million in fully subscribed Series E funding. This round brings the company’s total funding to date to approximately $92 million. The latest investment will be used to support the company’s rapidly increasing installed base, plus new LTE and 3G network optimization projects with top tier carriers in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Led by new investor Focus Ventures, participation from existing investors included DAG Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Pilot House Ventures, Net One Systems Co., DoCoMo Capital Ltd, Mobile Internet Capital, Inc, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Focus Ventures is known for its leadership in expansion stage venture capital and for its investment in Starent’s late stage financing round.

“Achieving this level of growth during the global economic crisis is proof of the strength of the company, the relevance of their technology to top tier carriers, and the high potential of the mobile broadband market,” said James Boettcher, General Partner, Focus Ventures. “Having won business against intense global competition, new customer and partner wins under its belt, and top carriers trailing its products, the company has already begun to make its mark in the industry. Stoke is fast-forwarding towards its long-term goals.”

Demand for high-speed broadband data continues to accelerate with the number of connected devices predicted by some to reach more than 50 billion in five years’ time. This growth challenges scale, flexibility, and cost containment in carrier networks. Stoke has been successful at helping carriers manage this growth, resulting in delivery of over 200 units of its SSX-3000 mobile broadband gateway since initiating commercial production in late 2008. This strong operator demand resulted in Stoke closing 2010 with revenues more than four times greater than 2009, and Stoke is expecting triple digit growth again in 2011.

Matt Murphy, partner at Kleiner Perkins and one of the long-term investors in Stoke, added, “We are thrilled with the market validation and high growth rate Stoke is experiencing. Demand for data is increasing at extraordinary pace and with that comes major challenges for carriers including scalability, flexibility, and cost. Stoke is ideally positioned to address the most pressing needs in today’s mobile broadband market.’’

“Together with our solution partners, we are delivering advanced and unique solutions for the immediate requirements of accelerating content delivery, traffic optimization service delivery cost reduction, and secure LTE deployments,” commented Vikash Varma, President and CEO at Stoke. “Our outlook for growth in 2011 is promising, given our central role in the strong operator investment focus on optimizing current network assets and preparing for, or deploying LTE.”

About Stoke, Inc.

Stoke is the mobile industry’s only transformation platform, delivering future-focused thinking and solutions for 3G mobile broadband and LTE core infrastructures. Stoke enables mobile operators, through the application of Business-Crossover™ thinking, to overcome limitations inherent in legacy approaches and architectures, helping them tackle the new realities of 3G mobile data service delivery today and successfully navigate their transition to 4G services platforms tomorrow. For more information, visit www.stoke.com.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has opened up its wallet once again.  This time it’s not for the most trafficked search engine company.  Microsoft has acquired Navic Networks, a Waltham, Mass. -based company that designs & delivers advertisements to cable TV networks.  The price was undisclosed, but there is speculation about the price being $200-$300 million.

Previous investors in Navic include Himalaya Capital, Highland Capital Partners, FirstMark Capital, Pilot House Ventures, and Lauder Partners.  Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is also planning on entering the television advertisement foray through their AdWords program.

Clearly this is Microsoft’s way of becoming more competitive against Google.  Rather than building an TV advertising platform internally, just buy one.

Information Source:
[1] Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft Announces Acquisition of Navic Networks