Matrixx reloads its bank balance

• Matrixx Software has raised another $50 million
• It will invest ‘heavily’ in further R&D
• Company targets 5G enterprise solutions as a focus for further growth

With years of telecom business application development experience and a host of big name customers already in the bag, Matrixx Software has raised another $50 million in funding to accelerate its product development efforts and fuel its efforts to break into adjacent markets that are opening up as 5G matures. 

Matrixx, which is now more than 10 years old, has been at the cutting edge of the BSS sector for many years now, having taken decision at inception to challenge the incumbent players such as Amdocs, CSG, Netcracker and more by building a real-time transaction processing platform and then developing applications (charging, rating, policy control) to run atop that platform. 

When it launched it was developing software to cope with the demands of 4G mobile data traffic: Now it’s developing for the 5G era, noting earlier this year that its 5G Converged Charging System “established a performance milestone of 200K transactions per second (TPS) across 100M subscribers running on IBM Cloud for Telecommunications.”

It’s taken time, but the company has built an impressive customer base full of Tier 1 operator names (Orange, Telefónica Germany/O2, Telstra, Vodafone, Zain, to name just a few) and is often involved when CSPs start to become DSPs (digital service providers) by abandoning traditional operational models and using non-proprietary cloud-based platforms with digital channels – think Visible (owned by Verizon) and Flex (Orange Poland). It’s also a vendor for the upcoming Open RAN-based 5G launch by DISH Network. (See DISH selects MATRIXX Software for dynamic pricing and monetization of its 5G network.)

The company won’t say how many CSP/DSP customers it has in total, though, because so many have not been named publicly, it seems.  

And now it’s kicking on into pastures new, having raised $50 million from Francisco Partners to expand “into adjacent market opportunities and customer segments.” (See MATRIXX Software announces $50 million in growth funding from Francisco Partners.)

The company notes: “Extending beyond traditional telecom, the adoption of 5G-based solutions opens up new customer segments that require robust, next-generation monetization platforms. Emerging players in cloud, edge and private networks are forging new business models across industries such as transport, logistics and healthcare that unlock network-based value-chains and revenues. The investment enables MATRIXX to extend into these new customer segments, enabling 5G enterprise solutions within a broad ecosystem of multi-party relationships.”

The latest round takes its total funding since inception to $150 million. Beyond that, Matrixx isn’t too keen to share details, other than that it now has about 350 staff, which makes for a sizeable payroll. It won’t share revenue details (it just says it has recorded sales growth of 60% year-on-year, but from what base is not known) and won’t say if it is profitable at an operating level.  

The funding, the customer base, the focus and the execution (It is well regarded in the BSS world) suggest that Matrixx should be a target for an acquisition by a larger, slower-moving company keen to accelerate the development of its business systems portfolio. But I’ve thought this for at least five years, and it hasn’t happened yet. The good news is that Matrixx looks as though it has the scale, muscle and smarts to survive on its own if the takeover bids are too low in the years to come. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV