Serial entrepreneur Bevan Slattery says he will invest $10 million to up stumps and hang a new shingle in San Francisco for his network virtualisation company Megaport.
It’s Megaport’s first move into the USA, after launching the company in Australia in 2013 and later expanding into New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Slattery had previously launched Pipe Networks – which has undersea cables linking Australia, Guam and NZ and which was sold to TPG for $373 million; followed by the ASX-listed NextDC datacentre operation in Australia; dark fibre operator Superloop; and Sub-Partners which is seeking to build submarine cables linking Sydney to Tasmania, Perth and Singapore.
Based on software-defined networking, Megaport’s network interconnection model allows customers to lease network connectivity between major datacentres on a pay-per-use basis.
Megaport’s US expansion plan aims at seeing services available in Seattle by the end of September, and the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Ashburn, Chicago and Dallas markets by the end of the year.
The company hopes to recover operating expenses from its US venture within the first 12 months, and is planning a further expansion into Europe during 2016. It already offers services in New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.
All sites are expected to be completed by the end of 2015, with the first market, Seattle, coming online in September. Slattery expects it to recover operating expenses within the first 12 months.
Overseeing the US operation will be Megaport’s executive VP for the Americas and Europe, Brynn Maddux, previously a Microsoft strategic sourcing manager.