Gwen Avery, director of marketing at Meriton, said two investors "popped” up near the end of the year to add to the substantial pot provided to the company in September.

VentureLink Fund, a labour-sponsored fund established in December 2000, was one of those investors. It announced Thursday it gave $3.15 million in additional funding to Meriton late last year.

The remainder of the $7.85 million came from Toronto-based venture capital firm VenGrowth, as announced on Jan. 21.

Both investments add on to the $29 million in new venture financing Meriton secured last September. That round was led by tier-one investors Sierra Ventures and Newbury Ventures.

Meriton is building an advanced metro optical networking component called an optical add/drop switch. By integrating optical switching and transmission within a single unit, the switch is meant to reduce cost and network complexity for carriers and service providers.

Avery said the money is being used to bolster product development and prepare for customer trials of the product slated to begin in the second quarter.

She said it is too soon to predict when the trials will end and the switch will be ready for commercial launch. The timetable for commercialization depends on the outcome of the trials.

In the same release, Venturelink also detailed its recent investments in Ottawa firms Spotwave Wireless and Tarian Software. Venturelink invested $2.4 million in Spotwave as part of the $29-million VC round announced Jan. 21. Tarian received $2 million as part of the $4 million round it announced in December.