Canopus Networks – a Sydney, Australia-based developer of AI-driven network analytics – has successfully completed an additional $3 million (AU $4.5 million) investment from Konvoy Ventures, a US VC firm that focuses on highly scalable technologies targeting the emerging gaming industry. And Canopus Networks will use the additional funding to accelerate growth in new markets and to develop further gaming-specific products. Jackson Vaughan, Managing Partner at Konvoy, joins the company’s board as an observer. This investment closes Canopus’ $10.6 million Series A round and the company has now raised US$12.3 million (AU$18.4 million) to date.
Launched by Vijay Sivaraman (CEO) and Himal Kumar (CTO) in 2018, Canopus Networks offers an affordable network visibility management solution driven by two technologies: artificial intelligence (AI) and programmable switch (P4) technology. And the Canopus Analytics platform is now operational in several networks across Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and the UK.
This new investment from Konvoy will further enable Canopus Networks to help network operators globally provide low-latency lag-free gaming to their users. And Konvoy invests in the infrastructure behind gaming and Canopus Networks will look to bring its solution to the global gaming ecosystem of developers, publishers, and distributors.
Gamers essentially need a fast and stable Internet connection for an enjoyable gaming experience. And according to Unity’s 2022 Multiplayer Gaming Report, 29% of respondents included having “a lag-free experience” as one of their top three most important features when choosing a new game. A low latency “lag-free” gaming can only be provided if internet service providers are able to effectively manage traffic, enabling users to have a seamless experience no matter how much bandwidth the applications require.
Canopus Networks offers telecommunications service providers complete and continuous visibility into gaming, streaming, conferencing, application usage and user experience over their fixed-line and 5G mobile networks. And the increased visibility of the user experience means that telecommunications providers can target investments to optimize their infrastructure to improve efficiency, enhance user experience, and increase returns on investments.
This solution streamlines operations to improve customer support and retention, reduce churn costs and obtain behavioral intelligence to grow customer lifetime value. This creates new revenue-generating offerings for cloud gaming and enterprise applications.
Canopus Networks’ AI-based network traffic analytics software accurately measures the quality of experience (QoE) for application streams in real-time, at Terabit speeds, agnostic to data encryption. And the Canopus solution is built on Terabit speed hyperscaler programmable switching technology, coupled with patented AI engines trained on stochastic behavioral models. Plus Canopus Networks’ technology offers a scalable, accurate, cost-effective, privacy-friendly, and encryption-resistant application-aware network traffic analytics platform.
Based in Sydney, Australia, Canopus Networks has expanded its team with personnel also in Melbourne, New Zealand, the USA, and the UK. Born out of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Canopus Networks originated from years of research on Software Defined Networking (SDN). This research pioneered the use of programmable network techniques for traffic classification and application experience measurement.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are excited to continue the development of Canopus Networks’ gaming focus with this funding round. Gaming is a growing but technically challenging market, which is suited to the solutions that Canopus Networks provides. The investment from Konvoy will allow us to support improved user experiences in the gaming space.”
— Canopus Networks CEO Prof. Vijay Sivaraman
“Canopus Networks is built out of technical academic research in software-defined networking, AI and internet infrastructure, all hugely important to the gaming industry. We are thrilled to be backing Canopus as they seek to innovate the way the gaming industry understands online data flows.”
— Jackson Vaughan, Managing Partner at Konvoy
