Calient Technologies, maker of optical circuit switches, has raised US$27m in venture capital from new and existing investors and announced the appointment of Jag Setlur as its CFO.

The company plans to use the funding to enhance its portfolio of 3D MEMS optical circuit switching systems, extend its IP portfolio and provide working capital for production growth, driven by new applications in software-defined data center networking.

“This round of financing will support the exciting opportunities ahead at Calient as we work to meet rapidly growing demands for optical circuit switching in software-defined data centers and metro networks,” Calient chairman and CEO Atiq Raza said. “With this funding and our recent growth, I believe now is the time for an experienced CFO like Jag to join the senior management team.”

Setlur, the new CFO, reports Raza. He comes to Calient from July Systems where he served as both COO and CFO.

Prior to that, Setlur served as CFO for Cotendo, where he closed two rounds of funding of about $30m and managed the sale of the company to Akamai.

His resume also includes leadership roles at NetXen, acquired by Qlogic, VeriSign, CoWare, acquired by Synopsys, enStage, iPrint Technologies, acquired by American TonerServ Corp., TCSI and UB Networks.

Calient designs and fabricates it systems using optical MEMS equipment in its fabrication facility located at its corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara, California.