Good News, Part 1 - Xconnect Doubles Revenues

Being shut down with a head cold for a few days will put a damper on things, but I'm definitely on the mend. Haven't been able to follow things much lately, but good news seems to come in cycles, and I'm seeing one now. Last week I talked about the new CEO at Metaswitch and how that's lining up nicely with a bigger growth story they seem to be managing very well.

There was a second good news item last week from XConnect, another company I've followed closely for a long time. Being an Advisor, I've deliberately held off blogging about this, and don't want to give the impression I'm sharing anything sensitive or a scoop ahead of the pack. Am just treating this as a straight up news item, and I think it speaks for itself. As announced, their 2009 revenues doubled, and traffic is up 81%. The metric I look
at with even more interest is customer acquisition, and they added a healthy 63 new service provider customers last year. The peering market is still advancing slower than anticipated, and the revenues are still fairly small, so doubling sales is not as impresssive as it would be in a more mature market.

That aside, XConnect is on track for a strong year. The press release notes the addition of a London POP, and money in the bank to support expansion via last year's $10 million Series B raise. Like many companies focused on the long term migration from TDM to IP, XConnect is riding on some big trends that will play in their favor over time, with the most recent being the explosion of mobile broadband (and with it, more and more wireless substitution), and the adoption of HD services. It's early days for HD voice, but just like with HD TV, once you try it, there's no turning back.

XConnect is far from a household name, but they're a leading player in their space, and I know their time will come. The company got some nice recognition along these lines month, being named a Red Herring Global 100 Winner. This may have been the first a lot of people heard about them, but those of us following them more closely, it's hard not to argue that their prospects are looking good.

Tomorrow I'll continue the good news theme with Part 2, and a bunch of news from another company that's driving IP to the masses.