OREANDA-NEWS. RUSNANO has invested USD 10M in Israel-based Compass-EOS, the leading developer of next generation routers, with no less than USD 3M of this investment planned for setting up an R&D center in Russia. The investment was made as part of a USD 42M funding round that includes participation of Compass-EOS' existing investors Comcast Ventures, Cisco, Pitango Venture Capital, Benchmark Capital, Northbridge Venture Partners and Marker LLC, as well as a US-based Private Equity Fund joining the round as a new investor.

Compass-EOS launched its r10004 router in March 2013, announcing the commercial shipment of its icPhotonics-based routers, based on the world's first shipping photonic chip-to-chip interconnect. Leading global service providers including NTT Communications and major research and education organizations including CERNET have successfully deployed the company's routers.

“Compass-EOS has an enormous market opportunity with the rapid growth of data services and online devices,” said Gadi Bahat, CEO of Compass-EOS. “Our initial success with global network service providers has enabled Compass-EOS to raise considerable capital from leading investors around the world. We will continue to innovate while investing in customer support, sales and marketing, all of which are key elements for our future.”

The company also disclosed it will re-align its workforce. Commenting on the re-alignment, Bahat said: “The strong vote of confidence from our investors and our refined company strategy further position Compass-EOS for global growth and success.”

icPhotonics, the Compass-EOS technology, is the world's first shipping silicon-to-photonics interconnect, a technology long considered as having disruptive potential in networking and computing. The photonics-based interconnect creates novel router architectures requiring less power, and taking up less space while providing a higher port density and capacity. In addition to the lower total cost of ownership it offers, the technology enables building-block deployment of routing resources, similar to the revolution of virtualized data centers.