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Murali Aravamudan, co-founder, Winphoria Networks Inc.
Friday, October 10, 2008
From Winphoria cradle, execs migrate to new startups
By Efrain Viscarolasaga
IRobot family tree
Those outside the local communications networking industry can be forgiven for not remembering much about Tewksbury’s Winphoria Networks Inc., a quiet softswitch and voice applications developer that operated in the area from 2000 to 2003. The company, which grew to about 135 people, kept a low profile and is probably best known for its $179 million acquisition by Motorola Inc. in 2003, a time when successful exits in the networking communications space were few and far between.
But since the company’s acquisition, its fingerprint has been on no fewer than five local startups, including Andover-based envIO Networks Inc., which landed $10 million in funding last spring and came out of stealth mode with its first carrier customer (Verizon Wireless) two weeks ago.
In 2000, Winphoria’s founders, Shamim Naqvi and Murali Aravamudan, were first-time entrepreneurs, each having spent years at Bell Labs (later Lucent Technologies Inc.). Since the company’s sale to Motorola, both have launched new ventures, backed by significant funding, while one of Winphoria’s first executives, Prakash Iyer, launched envIO in 2006, his first turn in the founder’s seat.
All three companies operate in the network communications industry, though each is taking a different approach to different markets. Naqvi’s Aylus Networks Inc., founded in 2005 and based in Westford, has developed a media sharing platform for wireless carriers that allows customers to share video and pictures among mobile phones, social media sites and other end points. Aravamudan’s Veveo Inc., founded in 2004, is likewise focused on video, but the company’s application aims to make mobile video search an easier process. EnvIO makes a mobile social networking platform aimed at creating mobile marketplaces for exchanging content.
“I didn’t have a preconceived notion that I was going to go build a startup,” said Aravamudan, who spent 15 months at Motorola following the Winphoria buy, before embarking on Veveo. “But I thought my value to a startup would be much higher than at a large company, and the experience at Winphoria gave us an idea of what it is like to build a company.”
The Winphoria experience also introduced all three entrepreneurs to Matrix Partners founder Paul Ferri and North Bridge Venture Partners managing partner Edward Anderson, both investors in Winphoria, as well as in all three startups.
All told, the three ventures have raised more than $63.8 million in private funding — more than the $50 million raised by Winphoria during its three-year run.
But other Winphoria executives have also taken their turn at the startup wheel. Former Winphoria executive Depankar Neogi co-founded Andover-based Copanion Inc., a maker of tax documentation software called GruntWorx in 2005.
Others also moved into drastically different industries. Former Winphoria CFO John Canepa, who oversaw the company’s sale to Motorola, is CEO at Woburn-based U.S. Genomics Inc., while former vice president of operations Paul Hartung has landed at Acton-based Alzheimer’s testing technology developer Neuroptix Corp. as CEO.
Winphoria’s softswitch and push-to-talk technology still exists within Motorola’s portfolio of products. However, it is the company’s impression on the New England technology community that seems to have had a more lasting effect.
“I think it is interesting that both (Aravamudan) and I came from Bell Labs and had never been entrepreneurs, but when we succeeded a lot of people said, “They did it, we can do it too,’” said Naqvi.
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