Collax announced that Intel Capital has invested in the company, bringing its total Series A funding to $8.4 million. Collax intends to use the funds to expand it presence in Europe and to the enter the U.S. market in the third quarter of 2006.
"Collax's product and sales strategy is clearly focused on the needs of the small to medium sized business," says Klaus Konrad, Investment Manager at Intel Capital. "We are excited about working with Collax as it continues to expand its customer base, accelerating deployment of dedicated solutions for this market segment."
Collax makes Linux-based and software and appliances for small and medium size businesses. Collax Business Server integrates a modular design that includes security, network infrastructure and communications. The company's management interface includes simplification of management functions for security features including firewalls, proxies, VPNs, anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing, PKI, and Web content filtering.
A spokesperson for the company said, "All this functionality is accessed via a transparent and user-friendly interface, shielding the user from the complexity of Linux and the best-of-breed open source components that comprise the Collax solution. No Linux knowledge is required to install and run the Collax Business Server."
"The IDC study "The Linux Marketplace" estimates that the open source server market is growing at 26 percent \[and is\] expected to reach a volume of $11 billion in 2008. The adoption of simple, low cost, easy-to-use open source solutions will expand the market and accelerate growth," says Olaf Jacobi, chief executive officer at Collax. "We plan to specifically address this SMB market opportunity."
