Vivek Ragavan, a serial chief executive of telecoms equipment companies, has joined another corporate venture-backed company, Actelis Networks.
Ragavan replaces company co-founder Tuvia Barlev, who will remain active with the company as executive chairman after helping Actelis raise more than $140m since 1998, according to news provider VentureWire.
In September, Actelis raised less than $10m in a series G round from existing investors, including Dupont Capital Management, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture, Adams Street Partners, ATA Ventures, Argonaut Ventures, Carlyle Venture Partners, Global Catalyst Partners, Individuals’ Venture Fund, Saints Capital, Vertex Venture Capital and Walden International, according to VentureWire.
Ragavan has seen different levels of success with his two previous venture capital-backed companies, Atrica and Redback Networks.
Ragavan was previously chief executive of Israel-based Atrica until its 2007 sale to Nokia Siemens Networks, a provider of telecom equipment and a joint venture of Siemens and Nokia, for reportedly less than $100m.
After spinning out from 3Com in 2000, Atrica raised $180m from investors, including 3Com, France Telecom’s Innovacom and Intel Capital.
Before Atrica, Ragavan had been executive president of Redback Networks and president of the residential broadband group at ADC Telecommunications, where he ran the company’s broadband communication access and transport businesses. Redback was sold to Siara Systems for $4.3bn. Following the acquisition, he served as executive president of Siara.