OpenVault, the Hoboken, N.J.-based broadband technology company, said Wednesday that it has purchased VelociData for an undisclosed sum, a move it says will help it expand into new markets and product lines. 

OpenVault helps broadband service providers better optimize and monetize their networks. With VelociData’s research and development capabilities and list of top-tier customers in the U.S. and Latin America, the company claims it will be able to serve cable, fiber and wireless broadband operators better. 

“The broadband environment is changing so quickly that it seems like each time we help our customers solve one data problem, a new one crops up,” OpenVault founder and CEO Mark Trudeau said in a press release. “VelociData’s focus on engineering and R&D gives us the resources and the synergies that will enable our product and sales teams at any scale to provide even more advanced solutions that will keep the broadband industry ahead of the fast pace of technology, consumer demand, and the competition.”

In an interview, Trudeau said VelociData provides his company with the missing pieces to attract larger Tier 1 providers.

“Certainly having cut or teeth on the small operators, it’s very hard to move upmarket and get that kind of credibility. VelociData has already been in at some Tier 1’s, and that right overnight gives us credibility,” Trudeau said. Because not only are these Tier 1’s long-term customers, but their referenceable customers as well. It does allow us to tell the Tier 1 story. And it’s very complementary to what we do.”

Trudeau explained that OpenVault has taken a different approach to the market originally, less about the data collection and data science and scalability side, but focused more on use cases. That made sense for Tier 2 and Tier 3 clients because they needed that kind of help. VelociData was more about solving the big data problem, making it available and staging it to be able to be used. 

“The beauty of what we’re doing by combining is they were solving the data problem, we were solving the domain and the use case problem. Now we have both,” Trudeau added.   

The VelociData purchase is the first major purchase for Open Vault since it attracted investment from three existing customers -- Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, and Blue Ridge Communications -- in October. That investment was targeted at driving expansion via mergers and acquisitions, organic growth, and increased visibility – most notably increased market activity in Europe and Latin America. 

Trudeau said that OpenVault will continue to look for M&A opportunities in the data business. 

“The idea behind the funding was to step on the gas as a company,” Trudeau said, adding that the company is also looking to grow organically, expanding its sales reach especially in Latin America. “...Our eyes are wide open. We’ve got a set of investors that are willing to fund additional acquisitions, and we’re going to do it in an opportunistic way. But we’re going to continue to grow organically as much as we can too.” 

According to OpenVault, the VelociData  purchase immediately increases its size and scale in the U.S. and Latin America; gives it access to more than 120 patents worldwide in the area of data science; brings a proven world-class R&D team to the company to develop new products specifically for the broadband industry; accelerates its strategy to provide additional Closed Loop Automation solutions, including Profile Management Application and enhanced data collection functionality like Streaming Telemetry; and offers more diverse deployment options, including the public cloud, private cloud, on-premises and appliances, for operators. 

Trudeau said OpenVault, which currently has about 50 employees, will bring on VelociData’s 12 workers as part of the deal.  

“Whether it’s better performance or subscriber usage insights, real-time data is the key to unlocking more value from broadband networks,” VelociData CEO Barry Rudolph said in a press release. “As part of the OpenVault organization, we will be able to help broadband providers not only to collect network data, but also to make that data actionable in ways that will immediately improve bottom line results while enabling future shifts to more highly automated intelligent networks.”

UpRamp, an accelerator program from CableLabs launched earlier this year as an “executive MBA for startups,” has announced the first four startups selected for its “Fiterator” program.

Fiterator is a three-month, nonresident program that helps startups connect with dozens of the world’s top cable operators. And unlike traditional startup accelerators, UpRamp is for young companies that have already built their technology and those that might have already raised some venture money.

UpRamp said its Fiterator program “guarantees actual commercial deals,” and that a group of CEOs and CTOs from the industry helped to select the following four from a group of applicants that originated from 17 countries:

-Edgewater Wireless: Is trying to revolutionize WiFi infrastructure with a patented, Multichannel “WiFi3” technology powering next-gen access points, small cells, and WiFi/ DAS solutions. The company claims that WiFi3 delivers up to 50 times greater throughput vs traditional WiFi and lowers network infrastructure investment.

-MediaHound: Offers personalized search and discovery for videos using a sophisticated graph recommendation engine.

-VelociData: Cleanses, transforms, and protects streaming and batch data without the need for database or applications programming, or the need to change existing systems or infrastructure.

-Trinity Mobile Networks: Uses JumpnetSDN to integrate WiFi and mesh networks alongside their cellular connections.

UpRamp noted that applicants ranged from startups that have closed seed rounds to public companies that have raised a combined $157 million.

UpRamp, introduced in February, announced the following month that it had also opened CableLabs’s patents to program participants.  

“UpRamp from CableLabs is about helping startups to establish themselves, make connections and secure deals from leading companies in the cable industry,” CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney said in a statement. “We help them innovate and forge ahead in this huge cable industry and, at the same time, connect cable companies all over the world with next generation thinkers.”

“Our Fiterator program concentrates on small cohorts of startups, in order to give these emerging tech companies the biggest possible impact,” added Scott Brown, UpRamp’s managing director. “In addition to our focus on deals, not demo days, every company that enters the Fiterator program is granted a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to every patent in our parent company CableLabs’ portfolio.”

UpRamp timed the announcement of its picks with this week’s CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo.