Union Bay Networks, a stealthy Seattle startup led by several former employees of F5 Networks, has scored $1.85 million in cash from Madrona Venture Group, Greylock and Divergent Ventures. Isilon co-founder Sujal Patel also participated.
The company, formed just two months ago, is led by former F5 Networks Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales Tom Hull. Other founders include Benn Bollay (CTO); Jonathan Hawthorne (Vice President Architecture); and Jason Needham (Vice President Marketing & Business Development).
The company says it is developing technologies that will will “enable the next generation of networking for cloud computing and software defined datacenters.”
In an interview with GeekWire, Hull didn’t want to disclose too much about the product, which he he said would likely be released later this year.
“In general terms, we are working on delivering solutions that are really going to enable next-generation networking for cloud computing,” he said. “It is a pure software play, but applying our expertise in networking towards that environment. We view cloud as a disconnect for a lot of the hardware plays, and we are going to focus specifically on a software solution.”
He said the product would not be competitive with F5 Networks, a $6.8 billion market value company based in Seattle.
Hull joined F5 when it was producing about $125 million in revenue, leaving in 2007 when it was in the $600 million range. He most recently worked at Impinj, helping to build out the company’s sales and marketing operations.
As a result of the investment, Madrona’s Tim Porter is joining the board. Union Bay just moved into new offices in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.
