--- Monday, June 06, 2005
With $6M Series A In The Bank,
Reva Systems Unveils New RFID Architecture
By Rizal Tupaz
6/6/2005
After receiving more than $6 million in Series A funding last year, RFID infrastructure start-up Reva Systems Corp. has emerged from stealth and unveiled its Tag Acquisition Network, a network-centric architecture to implement radio frequency identification systems.
RFID deployments are typically limited to small groups of proprietary readers connected to servers running RFID software. RFID pilots have typically been limited in scale and require custom implementation. With the number of network-connected readers projected to grow exponentially in the new few years, the RFID reader is increasingly becoming a critical device in the enterprise networks of retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers and entertainment venues.
Reva's Tag Acquisition Network builds upon the designs of enterprise wired and wireless networks. Reva applies networking principles similar to those employed in local, wireless and storage area networks, integrating the RFID network as part of the enterprise infrastructure and adding a layer of networking intelligence to local networks of RFID readers and tags.
Reva is betting that its architecture can enable more scalable, repeatable, and reliable enterprise-wide rollouts of RFID. The company says customers can avoid the scattered design and scalability problems of current systems, bringing control back to the data center.
Current RFID systems offer a "localized solution," said Chief Executive Ashley Stephenson. "Readers need to belong to the network, managed by the enterprise operations center. This is the second step of the RFID opportunity."
Based near the Boston area in Chelmsford, Mass., the company is funded equally by Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. Mike Zak, partner at Charles River, and James Goldstein, general partner at North Bridge, both hold board seats at Reva. Stephenson said the company has sufficient capital so far. "We are still running on the A round."
A co-founder of the company, Stephenson was previously CEO and board chairman of Boston-based Xedia Corp., a venture-backed developer of Internet access equipment, which was acquired by Lucent Technologies Inc. in 1999. He began his career at IBM R&D in the U.K. During recent years, Stephenson has taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor in the Babson College MBA program in Wellesley, Mass.
David J. Husak, co-founder and chief technical officer, was previously the CTO of C-Port Corp., a fabless communications semiconductor company which was sold to Motorola Inc. in 2000. Husak also was the founding engineer and system architect at Synernetics Inc., an Ethernet and LAN switching company, which was sold to 3Com Corp. in 1994. Prior to that, he developed LAN interface hardware at Apollo Computer.
Other members of management team include Mike Grady, vice president of engineering, Mike Miskovsky, vice president of business development, and Larry Ring, vice president of sales. Founded in April 2004, Reva has some 25 employees.