Dune's oasis

The global telecommunications market is crumbling into dust, which has not prevented a small Israeli startup that develops advanced communications equipment from raising a tremendous $24 million in its first financing round.

Dune Networks, established in October 2000, announced the funding today. The money had been collected in several stages, starting with $18 million at the end of 2001, from three Israeli venture capital funds Pitango, JVP and Aurum-SBC Ventures. Two foreign funds, Elwin Capital Partners and Alta Berkeley Venture Partners, kicked in during the second stage.

How did Dune do it? How did the startup, which hasn't even finished developing its first product, raise so much money in these tight times? ...