The fundraising, which brings Nexagent's total raised funds to £28.2m, will be sufficient to take the company beyond a cash flow positive position, according to Muirhead. Other investors include Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Questor Capital and Lago Ventures. Mike Grabiner, a for-mer chief executive at Energis and a director at Apax, will join the Nexagent board.

Nexagent has managed to complete one of the largest technology fundraisings of 2003, but Muirhead was loathe to claim bringing in capital was now easier for technology companies. It's still a tough funding environment. Only those that offer very short term cost benefits are likely to be suc-cessful in raising significant capital these days, he said.

Nexagent was at an advantage as it is focused on providing immediate cost returns. The company's independent multi-carrier interconnect solutions claim to reduce telecom costs for multinational enterprises by 20% almost right away. This is achieved by mixing and matching the best-fit carriers in each territory to create a private telecoms network. Nexagent also manages and monitors the telecom services on behalf of the companies.

Muirhead explained: It is now clear that multi-carrier net-works are here to stay. Firstly, the single global super-carrier has proven not to be economically viable. Secondly the extended enterprise' will almost always involve multiple car-riers as there is unlikely to be agreement across the board' to use the same carrier. Finally, enterprises increasingly seek to continually manage costs by keeping multiple suppliers and limiting contracts to just one year. Today the question isnt are you integrating, it's who's doing the integration for you?

Telecom companies as well as systems integrators and network integrators will be targeted to use the service. We are already working with a large systems integrator and I would expect us to be working with at least one major carrier next year. We will work with a small number of partners who really believe in this model, said Muirhead.

Nexagent has rolled out interconnect points in the UK and Germany already and will use the new funding for further roll-outs starting with New York and Stockholm . Muirhead added that no finance was sought from industrial investors to ensure the company maintained its independence as a solutions provider.

Muirhead stepped down as CEO of Nexagent in Feburary this year passing control onto Royce Murphy, who has experience of leading UK-based software startup PeopleDoc up to its exit. Muirhead remains as president with overall responsibility for marketing, business strategy and the solution roadmap.

Muirhead's first company Orchastream, which also provides telecom software solutions, was sold this year to MetaSolv, a US rival for £7.9m, having reached a valuation of almost £1bn at the height of the internet boom.

http://www.nexagent.com