Jones gains #5m backing for Equiinet

Industry veteran and networking entrepreneur Bob Jones has managed to secure funding of more than #5 million to enable his latest venture, Equiinet, to expand in the UK and Europe.

Equiinet, which launched last year with the NetPiilot, is Jones' fourth start-up, following Steebek, Maize Systems and Sonix Communications. Jones, who is chairman and co-founder of Equiinet, admitted that the limiting factor in its growth had been resources, having started with #400,000 of funding. Sales of the NetPiilot have suffered as a result - 1,000 have been sold since Equiinet began.

'Even if you've got a great product and a market to sell it into, you still need the resources to get it out there,' said Jones. 'The money is going to be used for further development of the Netpiilot and to develop sales and support across Europe. We're also going to expand staff numbers, strengthen the management team and increase promotion activities.'

The #5 million funding was obtained from Schroder Ventures. It is the second time it has backed a Jones start-up, previously funding Sonix Communications, which was later sold to 3Com for $70 million.

Carl Parker, partner at Schroder Ventures, said: 'We are delighted to back Bob again. There are a lot of entrepreneurs with great track records, but few who have done it three times over.'

Equiinet sells through three distributors in the UK - Data Connectivity, Hyperchannel and Logitek.

'I hope that as the company grows, our distributors will grow with us.

We don't want to have to look in the UK for other partners,' said Jones.