Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Byrne told us: "We are working towards a float either late 2008 or early 2009. We hope to have the repeat business and predictable revenues demanded by the market within that timeframe."

Established initially as a maker of equipment for broadband access, the company's move into the much larger cellular backhaul to be a profitable one, where its technology delivers efficiency advantages over that currently used by network operators.

Over the last year, as well as continuing with its broadband access business, Cambridge Broadband has been growing the cellular transmission side of its business. The company has announced equipment contracts with leading cellular operators around the world, including MTN and Vodacom.

The company trebled sales from £2 to £6m in 2006 and has ambitious plans to increase this to around £15m in 2007. Headcount increased by 50 per cent to 92 during the year and it plans to boost that number by a further third to around 120 in the coming year.

Bjorn Krylander, Cambridge Broadband's CEO said: "We have capitalised on the explosive growth opportunity in the cellular backhaul market and established great traction around the world, as well as expanding on our existing broadband access business.

"This new funding provides a great opportunity for us to expand our geographical market and also to invest in the research and development needed to evolve our product offering to further extend the technological advantages and highly compelling business case our product provides operators."

Byrne said the company would expand its product offering over the coming months, introducing new products that operate in the frequency bands required for certain key geographical markets.

Expansion of its worldwide sales capability will also be a major focus, opening a new office in Johannesburg and growing its bases in Kuala Lumpur and India.

Taking part in the funding round were existing investors Amadeus Capital, Accel Partners and TVM Capital, together with new investor Adara Ventures.

Hermann Hauser, director of Amadeus Capital Partners and chairman of Cambridge Broadband said: "We have been involved with Cambridge Broadband since the company was established. The company has made excellent progress and has established a hugely experienced team to meet the challenges in taking it to the next level."

Roberto Saint-Malo, managing partner at new investor Adara, explained: "Cambridge Broadband has a unique solution that is perfectly placed to capitalise on the infrastructure problems cellular operators are facing as their networks continue to grow and as new 3G networks are being built. VectaStar has already proven its world-beating performance in this application, and we are very pleased to come on board as an investor as the company continues to grow."

As well as significantly expanding its sales infrastructure in the last 12 months, Cambridge Broadband has strengthened the company's managerial and operational teams. Following the appointment of Bjorn Krylander as CEO in January 2006, new CFO, Byrne and VP operations, Graham Peel, were recently appointed.

Cambridge Broadband announced its previous funding round in January 2006, when it raised $9m.