Equiinet gets timely funding boost

Manufacturer to plough £2m investment windfall into marketing

Internet appliance manufacturer Equiinet has received £2m in funding to boost its product marketing. Equiinet was re-acquired by its founder Bob Jones from German-based DICA Technologies in May, after DICA went into receivership.

The funding, received from Herald Ventures, private investor Jon Moulton and company directors, will enable the dedicated channel vendor to make it through the break-even point and into profitability, after the costs of the acquisition and the rebuilding of the business are taken into account, claimed Jones.

"The funding is particularly gratifying at a time when venture capitalists have deep pockets but short arms. I think there are people that are prepared to invest in companies that have a good chance of success, and we have a sellable product," he said.

"We are totally committed to the indirect channel, and the majority of the new investment will go into marketing because we have an established product that has been selling for two years with 10,000 units already installed," he added.

Michael Carter, sales director at Equiinet reseller Netpremacy, is impressed by the company's indirect strategy. "Equiinet will bend over backwards to ensure that resellers have the right tools to promote its products," he said.

The company relaunched its two-tiered Equal Partners channel programme last month. About 90 resellers attended the event, where the company announced an incentive scheme for individual sales people within resellers, with prizes awarded for sales of the company's NetPilot product.

"NetPilot offers small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) a good way to get connected to the internet even if they have no in-house technical skills," said Jones.

Carter agreed. "The NetPilot product is ideal for the SME market because they want a box that manages their networks, such as email, internet and firewall software. This box does this, and can be managed remotely by the reseller," he said.

Graham Smee, director of channel solution provider EquIP, said the £2m investment will help the company promote new products, such as CachePilot Enterprise and NetPilot Lite.

"The company has some good new products and, if the investment is used to develop and market them, then it can only be good news for the channel," he said.