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SAN FRANCISCO - October 31, 2012 -- Meraki, the leader in cloud managed networking, announced today a unique program to help accelerate new technology innovation. Meraki will provide complete enterprise-class networks, valued at nearly $15,000, for free to up-and-coming technology startups. The Meraki Startup Kit gives rising companies a helping hand with their network infrastructure, and is Meraki’s way of sharing its success with the next generation of disruptive startups.

Scalable, secure, and easy-to-use, Meraki’s technology is ideal for young startups hoping to become the next big thing. Unique in the networking market, Meraki provides the features and performance needed in large-scale enterprise deployments, yet is easy to deploy and manage. Meraki’s Startup Kit can be deployed in minutes without specialized training, so startups can focus on building great products instead of dealing with IT headaches. And when they succeed, Meraki's cloud technology allows them to scale to thousands of employees by simply plugging in additional access points.

“Cloud-based technologies like GitHub and Dropbox, new ways of collaboration, and the sheer number of mobile devices in the workplace means that a reliable and high-performance network infrastructure is absolutely essential,” said AJ Goldman, Meraki’s Chief Evangelist. “The Startup Kit provides an enterprise-grade solution in an integrated, easy-to-configure package.” Although the equipment would normally list for almost $15,000, Meraki will donate kits to a limited number of qualifying startups for free.

Aimed at freshly funded tech startups, the Kit is a package of Meraki cloud managed networking gear for rapidly expanding companies. A Startup Kit provides all of the hardware needed for a complete network: two of Meraki’s top of the line wireless access points, a high-throughput security appliance, and a 24 port switch with PoE. The Kit also includes a five year license for Meraki’s cloud-based management platform.

“It wasn’t too long ago that we were a 10-person company setting up our first office, and we’re grateful for help we received along the way,” said Sanjit Biswas, co-founder and CEO of Meraki. “This is a way for us to give something tangible back to the tech community and help promising startups change the world.” Today, Meraki is a leader in cloud networking, with 150% revenue growth, 330 employees, and over 10,000 worldwide customers ranging from young technology companies to global enterprises.

Two companies have already received their Startup Kits and are happily running on Meraki’s mix of enterprise-grade hardware with the easy-to-administer cloud dashboard.

San Francisco-based Copious - “a social marketplace to buy and sell the things you love” - was the first company to receive a Meraki Startup Kit. With 17 employees and a recent round of Series A funding, Copious was outgrowing its existing networking setup, so getting the opportunity to implement a Meraki network for free was perfectly timed.

For vline, a cloud video conferencing platform for developers, the Meraki Startup Kit provides a solid office network as the company prepares its tools and platform for public launch. Ben Strong, vline’s CEO, commented that “Meraki access points are great for video conferencing. Much better than all the other ones we've tried.” As vline grows into its Palo Alto office, the Meraki network is an ideal networking solution to support the team.

With these two companies already making great use of their Startup Kits, Meraki is now opening up the applications to the greater startup community. Meraki hardware is high quality, easy to set up, and low maintenance - the perfect infrastructure for startups relying on rock-solid Internet connections to develop, converse and deploy in the cloud.