New York, May 13, 2005
NRI press
Red Herring editorial team has
chosen Ikanos Communications in the Red Herring 100
Private Companies of North America
Ikanos Communications develops silicon solutions
that are focused on delivering fiber-fast broadband
access over existing copper lines. Ikanos has created
highly integrated silicon solutions that are programmable
in the field, compliant with international standards,
and support both ATM and Ethernet network connectivity.
In addition, the Ikanos solutions offer best in class
performance, with the most granular bandwidth scalability
and industry leading aggregate throughput of up to
150 Mbps over a single copper line.
Ikanos has brought together a highly experienced
team of broadband communications engineers and has
filed for 33 patents on its fundamental technology.
Founded in 1999 and based in Fremont, California,
Ikanos Communications has raised over $100 million
in financing to date from blue-chip venture capital
firms including: Anthelion Capital, Copan, Greylock
Partners, Intel Capital, JPMorgan Partners, Panasonic
Digital Concepts Center, PMC-Sierra, Presidio Venture
Partners, Ridgewood Capital, Sequoia Capital, Telesoft
Partners, TL Ventures, VentureTech Alliance (TSMC)
and Walden International. Ikanos contributes actively
to public standards development by way of its membership,
and leadership,
Anticipating a huge increase in data, voice, and
video traffic, carriers upgraded their core and metro
area networks with millions of miles of high-capacity
optical fiber in the 1990s. However, the cost of deploying
fiber in the last mile to connect users—$3,000
to $10,000 per 1000 feet—has prevented carriers
from bringing fiber based broadband service directly
to all but a few users. Ordinary copper telephone
lines continue to serve the majority of homes and
most businesses. Until recently, the fastest service
available over telephone copper lines was either dial-up
(56 Kbps) or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
(maximum 8/1 Mbps). Although demand for broadband
access is growing, carriers were unable to meet the
demand due to the bandwidth gap between copper and
fiber
Red Herring has a long tradition of
discovering new and innovative technology and entrepreneurs.
Since 1997, Red Herring editors have selected a group
of private companies that are emerging as the brightest
stars...More
Rajesh Vashist
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Vashist has served as president, chief executive
officer, and a director of Ikanos Communications since
1999 and as chairman of the board since 2004. Vashist
has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining
Ikanos as the leading provider of wireline semiconductor
solutions that enable carriers to provide interactive
broadband services to their customers. His experience
in building profitable companies in highly competitive
markets has been key to his success at Ikanos. He
has overseen the company’s rapid revenue expansion
by first focusing its efforts on Asia and then on
Europe and North America. Vashist’s knowledge
about the semiconductor industry and the factors driving
its success has proven invaluable to Ikanos. Since
joining Ikanos, Vashist has built the industry’s
largest team of VDSL experts and hired a management
team with proven success records in growing small
companies into market leaders. Prior to joining Ikanos,
Vashist was general manager of the OEM Solutions Group
at Adaptec, Inc. There he held various marketing positions.
Prior to Adaptec, Vashist played multiple marketing
roles at Vitelic Semiconductor and Samsung Semiconductor.
Vashist holds a B.S. degree in engineering from REC
Rourkela in India and an M.B.A. from Marquette University
in Wisconsin.
