Mavenir Explained

Mavenir Systems, Inc.
Type:	Private
Industry:	Telecommunications software
Founder:	merger led by Siris Capital Group, LLC
Key People:	Pardeep Kohli (president and CEO)
Num Employees:	~5500 FTE
Num Employees Year:	2022
Revenue:	~$750 million
Revenue Year:	2022
Foundation:	(main predecessor companies 1997, 2005, and 2007)
Location:	Richardson, Texas, U.S.

Mavenir Systems, Inc. is an American telecommunications software company, created in 2017 as a result of a three-way merger of existing companies and technologies, that develops and supplies cloud-native software to the communications service provider (CSP) market.

The company is headquartered in Richardson, Texas, US, and has offices in multiple countries such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Romania, Germany, and the UK. Mavenir also has Centres of Excellence around the world, including in Bangalore and Brno, with a global employee headcount of over 5000. The company serves more than 250 Communications Service Providers in over 120 countries.^[1]

History

Predecessor companies

Mavenir has a complex corporate history as a result of successive acquisitions and spin-offs. The main historical predecessors are:

• Xura, which was composed of pieces of Comverse, Inc.,^[2] Acision, and a number of other acquired companies. Comverse, Inc derived from Comverse Technology, was active in traditional value-added services (VAS), digital cloud services, Unified Communications (VoIP & UC), and a suite of evolved communication services. Acision was a privately held secure mobile messaging and engagement services firm.^{[3] [4]} These entities were combined in 2015 to form Xura, which focused on two core product areas: digital communications services and converged communications (traditional and IP).
• An older entity with a similar name, Mavenir Systems, initially a company focused on transition from 3G to 4G with IMS products and solutions, founded in 2006. It acquired Airwide Solutions, Stoke and Ulticom and In 2013, the company went public on NYSE with MVNR ticker symbol. The company was acquired by Mitel Networks Corporation in 2015 to create Mitel Mobility.
• Ranzure Networks, a startup focused on developing 5G cloud-based radio access network technology.

How it came together:

In mid-2016, Xura was acquired by affiliates of Siris Capital Group in a deal that valued the company at approximately $643 million.^[5] On 19 December 2016, affiliates of Xura agreed to acquire Mitel Mobility, for $385 million, and Ranzure Networks Inc., for an undisclosed sum.^[6]

The New Mavenir

When the transactions completed on February 8, 2017, the newly merged company was renamed Mavenir Systems Inc., trading under the Mavenir brand.^[7]

Mavenir has continued to acquire technology - including its acquisitions of Aquto, a cloud-based sponsored data platform (2018);^[8] Argyle Data (2018), a machine learning security platform; Brocade’s vEPC^[9] and ip.access (2020), a specialist small cell vendor.^[10]

On 6 October 2020, Mavenir announced that it had filed a registration statement for an initial public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares on Nasdaq. Due to market volatility in the run-up to the 2020 US elections the company postponed the IPO on 28 October but stated that it would keep market conditions under review in the following months.^[11]

Company timeline

• 2005: Mavenir Systems founded
• 2008: Mavenir Systems completes round of funding for $17.5 million
• 2010: Mavenir Systems completes a round of funding round for $13.5 million backed by Alloy Ventures, Austin Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners^[12]
• 2011: Mavenir Systems completes round of funding for $40 million backed by August Capital and including existing investors Alloy Ventures, Austin Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners and Greenspring Associates^[13]
• 2011: Mavenir Systems acquired Airwide Solutions, a messaging specialist, for $40 million^[14]
• 2013: Mavenir Systems IPO (NYSE) under ticker MVNR, raising $44.5 million^[15]
• 2014: acquired security gateway vendor Stoke for $2.9 million plus $1.9 million of debt^[16]
• 2015: acquired signalling vendor Ulticom for $20 million^[17]
• 2015: acquired by Mitel Networks Corporation for $560 million^[18]
• 2016: rebranded by Mitel to Mitel Mobile, then sold to Xura (for $350 million)^[19]
• 2016: Pardeep Kohli and Ashok Khuntia founded Ranzure to disrupt the Radio Access Network market through cloud-based virtualisation. Ranzure raises $13 million in Series A funding.^[20]
• 2016: Xura acquired Ranzure^[21]
• 2017: Siris merges Xura, Ranzure and Mitel Mobile and rebrands as Mavenir^[22]
• 2017: Brocade vEPCc acquisition^[23]
• 2018: acquired Aquto^[24]
• 2018: acquired Argyle Data^[25]
• 2020: acquired ip.access^[26]
• 2020: IPO postponed due to market volatility

CEO

Mavenir’s President and Chief Executive Officer is Pardeep Kohli who has been associated with several of the ventures that make up the company today.^[27] He has been in his current post since December 2016 and was previously CEO of Xura, which he joined after it acquired Ranzure, a company that Kohli had founded earlier that year. Before Ranzure, Kohli had been President and CEO of Mavenir Systems, Inc,^[28] guiding it through its IPO in November 2013, and subsequent acquisition by Mitel Networks Corporation in 2015.

Prior to Mavenir Systems, Pardeep was Co-Founder, President and CEO of Spatial Wireless, which was acquired by Alcatel in 2004.

Deployments

Customers

The company says it has 250+ operator customers in 120 countries, including 17 of the top 20 largest operators. Known examples include:

• 2012 – MetroPCS - VoLTE solution to support what was claimed to be a world's first^[29]
• 2014 – T-Hrvatski Telekom - IMS HSS-FE^[30]
• 2015 – T-Mobile USA - RCS^[31]
• 2017 – Sprint – NFV Cloud Deployment
• 2018 – Telefonica Germany – Virtualised IMS for VoLTE and VoWiFi
• 2019 – Verizon – cloud core
• 2019 – Partner – virtualized mobile core
• 2019 - Cellcom – virtualised IMS mobile core and VoWiFi^[32]
• 2019 – Telefónica Argentina - Signalling Firewall^[33]
• 2019 – Vodafone - Open RAN^[34]
• 2019 – Vodafone Idea – “Network as a Platform”^[35]
• 2020 – T-Mobile Czech Republic and Slovak Telekom – NFV Harmonised IMS^[36]
• 2020 – Telefonica “O2” UK - virtualised IMS^[37]
• 2020 – Hudson Valley Wireless – Cloud-native LTE packet core^[38]
• 2020 – Rakuten Mobile RCS^[39]
• 2020 – Turkcell – Cloud-native IMS^[40]
• 2020 – Dish - Open RAN^[41]
• 2020 – Vodafone Idea – Open RAN^[42]
• 2020 – Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone – RCS interconnection in Germany^[43]

Trials

Mavenir has been involved in OpenRAN and other virtualisation trials with several operators. Partnerships in the public domain include:

• 2018 – Baicells – XRAN (Open RAN) interface testing
• 2020 – Telefonica “O2” UK - OpenRAN
• 2020 – Deutsche Telekom – web-scale validation of 5G SA core
• 2020 – Airtel – Open RAN RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC)

Technology partnerships

• 2019 – OEM agreement with Big Switch^[44]
• 2019 – OpenRAN integration with Sunwave^[45]
• 2020 – 5G private networks in Germany with Mugler^[46]
• 2020 – Open RAN solutions in Japan with NEC^[47]
• 2020 – Open RAN solutions in the USA with Goodman Networks^[48]
• 2020 – Open RAN solutions in the USA with GDT^[49]
• 2020 – Open RAN collaboration with Altiostar^[50]
• 2020 – Open RAN collaboration with Comba Telecom in Turkey^[51]
• 2020 – 5G campus networks systems integration in Germany with NTT Data^[52]
• 2020 – 5G core UPF with NVIDIA^[53]
• 2020 – RCS Business Messaging with Microsoft Azure
• 2020 – Open RAN Remote Radio Head development with MTI^[54]

External links

• Official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Wireless network software firm Mavenir is ready to go public after hauling in $427 million last year . Dallas News . en . 9 October 2020.
2. Web site: Company Profile for Comverse Inc . https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095443/http://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=CNSI.O . dead . 2 February 2014 . . 30 January 2014.
3. News: Verint to buy Comverse Technology . . 13 August 2012.
4. News: Verint completes separation from Comverse . Ron Steinblatt . . 7 February 2013.
5. Web site: Xura Announces Agreement to be Acquired by Affiliates of Siris Capital Group for $25.00 per share in an All-Cash Deal Valued at Approximately $643 million. Yahoo Finance. 2016-05-24.
6. Web site: Xura buys Mitel Mobility for $385m . Globes English . 20 December 2016.
7. Xura to change company name to Mavenir Systems upon completion of Mitel Mobile acquisition . GlobeNewswire . February 8, 2017.
8. Web site: Mavenir buys data rewards platform Aquto . TelecomLead . 4 January 2018.
9. Web site: Mavenir enhances machine learning security suite acquiring Argyle Data . RCR Wireless News . 6 February 2018.
10. Web site: Legacy network support at heart of Mavenir acquisition of ip.access . RCR Wireless News . 28 September 2020.
11. Web site: Mavenir delays IPO that could have valued it at nearly $2 billion . Business Journals.
12. Web site: Mavenir Raises $13.6 million for Mobile Operator Services . Venture Beat . 29 June 2010.
13. Mavenir Systems Raises $40 Million in Series E Funding . PR Newswire . 30 May 2011.
14. Web site: Mavenir Systems announces Airwide acquisition . Telecoms.com . 31 May 2011.
15. Web site: Mavenir Systems IPO Is Not Calling at Proposed Range . Seeking Alpha . 4 November 2013.
16. Web site: Mavenir Buys Security Gateways With Stoke Purchase . Rethink Research . 20 November 2014.
17. Web site: Mavenir To Bolster Telecom Diameter Signalling Platform With Ulticom Purchase . RCR Wireless . 13 January 2015.
18. Web site: Canada's Mitel Networks to buy Mavenir Systems for $560 mln . . 2 March 2015.
19. Web site: Xura Buys Mitel Mobility for $385 million and Ranzure To Double Down on 5G . TechCrunchaccess . 19 December 2016.
20. Web site: LiveOak Invests in Ranzure Networks . LiveOak . 11 October 2016.
21. Web site: Xura Buys Mitel Mobility for $385 million and Ranzure To Double Down on 5G . TechCrunch . 4 February 2020.
22. Web site: Xura Appeals To Nostalgia With Mavenir Rebrand . Telecoms.com . 4 February 2020.
23. Web site: Brocade Packet Core Sold To Mavenir . The Register . 3 August 2017.
24. Web site: Mavenir Acquires Aquto . Telecom Paper . 4 January 2018.
25. Web site: Mavenir Enhances Machine Learning Security Suite Acquiring Argyle Data . RCR Wireless . 4 February 2020.
26. Web site: Mavenir buys ip.access for multi-RAN and private networks boost . The Mobile Network . 28 September 2020.
27. Web site: Mavenir's Pardeep Kohli voted the most powerful person in wireless for 2020 . FierceWireless . en.
28. Web site: Mavenir Names CEO . Light Reading . en.
29. Web site: Mavenir Powers MetroPCS Volte . LightReading . 10 August 2012.
30. Web site: Deutsche Telekom Firm T-HT Deploys Mavenir Systems IMS HSS-FE . Telecom Lead . 4 April 2014.
31. Web site: T-Mobile Adds Video Calling To RCS Line Up . LightReading . 4 February 2020.
32. Web site: Cellcom enlists Mavenir for IMS core . FierceWireless . en.
33. Web site: Telefonica Argentina Launches AI/ML Based Signalling Firewall From Mavenir . Telecom TV . 2 October 2019.
34. Web site: Vodafone Initiates First Open RAN trials in UK, Challenging Traditional Vendors . Fierce Wireless . 7 October 2019.
35. Web site: Vodafone Idea and Mavenir Partner to extend network as a platform . Business Standard.
36. Web site: T-Mobile Czech Republic and Slovak Telekom Both Deploy Mavenir Tech . Omnisperience . 4 February 2020.
37. Web site: O2 Deploys Mavenir's Virtualised IMS Solutions . Omnisperience . 18 February 2020.
38. Web site: Hudson Valley Wireless Deploys Mavenir's Cloud-Native LTE vEPC . Financial Post . en-CA.
39. Web site: Rakuten deploys Mavenir RCS solution for communication app . India Times. 9 April 2020.
40. Web site: Turkcell selects Mavenir solution to transform its LTE, 5G network . RCR Wireless News . 17 April 2020.
41. Web site: McLymore . Arriana . Dish announces deal with software maker Mavenir for its 5G network . Reuters . en . 23 April 2020.
42. Web site: Vodafone Idea Deploys Mavenir OpenRAN Solution . Bloomberg.com . en . 23 April 2020.
43. Web site: Morris . Anne . Mavenir flags standalone 5G core trial with Deutsche Telekom . Light Reading . en.
44. Web site: Big Switch, Mavenir enter OEM deal for service provider NFV platform . Telecompaper . en.
45. Web site: Sunwave, Mavenir enter partnership to expand ecosystem for enterprise OpenRAN . Telecompaper . en.
46. Web site: Mavenir signs partnership with Mugler to market 5G equipment in Germany . Telecompaper.com . en.
47. Web site: NEC, Mavenir collaborate to deliver 5G Open vRAN platform for Japanese market . Telecompaper.com . en.
48. Web site: Mavenir and Goodman Networks Partner to Deliver OpenRAN Solutions and Services . Bloomberg.com . en . 5 June 2020.
49. Web site: Mavenir partners GDT to deliver OpenRAN products, services . Telecompaper.com . en.
50. Web site: Altiostar joins Mavenir to develop open RAN radios for U.S. carriers . FierceWireless . en.
51. Web site: Mavenir: Leading the OpenRAN revolution . BusinessChiefEU. en.
52. Web site: Morris . Anne . NTT Data and Mavenir team for 5G campus networks . Light Reading . en.
53. Web site: Mavenir puts 5G tech on Nvidia products . Light Reading . en.
54. Web site: Mavenir and MTI deliver first Evenstar open RAN radio . FierceWireless . en.