Carrier Ethernet vendor Overture Networks announced this morning that it had secured  an initial equity investment of $8 million, with an opportunity to raise up to $11.7 million.

Overture will also be opening two new development centers in Westford, Massachusetts and Bangalore, India to support its existing engineering team in its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina headquarters.

Overture said the new funds would be used will accelerate the introduction of the company’s Ensemble Open Service Architecture (OSA) software and services as well as ongoing innovation of its Carrier Ethernet product portfolio. The company didn’t say where the funding came from.

“We are encouraged by the endorsement of industry analysts and customers around our direction,” said Overture CEO and president Mike Aquino. “We are further energized by the investor commitment this funding represents. It will allow us to drive innovation to help service providers deliver a winning customer experience to their end users.”

Overture said that five of the top seven Carrier Ethernet service providers worldwide and eight of the 10 USA-based Carrier Ethernet service providers deploy its products, but didn’t provide the names of those companies.