DC Consulting is delighted to be the conduit to a £2m investment into Calnex Solutions by the Scottish Loan Fund, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners; John Craig of DC Consulting has assisted Calnex Solutions since incorporation in all aspects of the company's growth strategy, both in terms of fundraising and financial strategy.

Calnex, employing circa 50 people, has grown to be a leading provider of solutions for Ethernet testing including synchronisation. The business has established a blue-chip customer base, including developers of next generation smart devices such as Nokia and Samsung as well as global telecom companies such as Vodafone who deploy the technology on their networks.

In recent years, there has been an explosion in mobile data and many commentators expect, certainly in the near-term, the volume of traffic to double annually. Much of the traffic will be bandwidth-hungry video content, and one of the major challenges faced by service providers is scaling the so-called mobile backhaul element of their networks in a cost-effective manner so as to ensure that a reliable and efficient network service is maintained. To achieve this most operators are migrating to Ethernet for mobile backhaul, however, operators then need to ensure that base stations that receive mobile phone traffic are properly synchronised so as to avoid creating distorted signals and poor service quality.

Calnex has a clear growth strategy and vision for the future (which is reinforced by the aforementioned market pull) and the flexible funding package provided by Maven via the SLF will allow the company to deliver a next generation testing product, ensuring the business remains a key player in the $1.3 billion global Ethernet testing market.

Tommy Cook, CEO at Calnex, added “It is great to have secured the funding that will provide the support which will enable us to implement our development plans. We have a clear vision of our future business and the flexibility of the SLF funding package means we are able to achieve this in a timely manner thus ensuring we continue to serve our customers’ needs and remain at the forefront of market and technological developments.”