Peering startup IIX Inc. has raised an additional $20 million in funding less than six months after its previous round to continue scaling global operations. And just like last time, the fresh capital is quickly being put to use with an acquisition that is poised to speed the ambitious expansion plan considerably.

The newly absorbed IX Reach Ltd. shares many characteristics with IIX’s preceding purchase, Allegro Networks Ltd., another UK-based connectivity provider focused on helping carriers serve traffic destined beyond the reach of their own infrastructure. But the motivation behind the deals is completely different.

Whereas the acquisition of Allegro centered mainly on the outfit’s networking automation capabilities, the emphasis in IIX’s latest translation lies with the underlying infrastructure. Or more specifically, the dozens of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) that IX Reach operates in co-location facilities around the world.

Each hub acts as a gateway for packets to move from one network to another, making the grid as a whole a tremendously valuable addition to IIX’s fast-growing peering operation, which aims to standardize that once largely impromptu routing process. The startup promises to provide organizations with greater control over how their most important traffic moves about at a fraction of the cost historically associated with connecting to IXPs.

The addition of IX Reach’s infrastructure extends that value proposition to more parts of the world and thereby not only makes IIX’s network accessible to additional buyers but also increases its usefulness to existing customers such as Google Inc. and Box Inc. with broad global operations. The new $20 million in funding from TriplePoint Capital should also help fuel IIX’s efforts to turn that widened market reach into tangible revenue growth.

The startup has raised a total of $36.2 in funding to date with the new round and now has over 150 IXPs under management across four continents.

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