• Federated Wireless

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2017

  Federated Wireless develops shared-spectrum CBRS technology and operates a Spectrum Access System (SAS) that enables private 5G, enterprise wireless, and edge solutions. The company positions private wireless as a transformative enterprise technology and supports use cases across IoT, AR/VR, telemedicine, drones, and industrial automation. Federated says it is concentrating recent funding on speeding time to market for new product capabilities and on ecosystem development with device and edge partners. It reports more than 350 customers and over 85,000 connected devices across the United States and territories. The partner ecosystem includes more than 40 device manufacturers and edge partners. Founded in 2012 and based in Arlington, Va., the company is focused on commercializing shared spectrum for enterprises and service providers. Federated Wireless is a nationwide leader in shared spectrum and CBRS technology, providing a platform that enables commercial and private wireless deployments. Its platform aims to combine the attributes of traditional wireless and Wi‑Fi, offering lower fixed costs, higher quality, and greater efficiency and scale. The company reports more than 350 customers and over 85,000 connected devices across the U.S. and territories, serving sectors including defense, government, manufacturing, telecommunications, utilities, real estate, and education. Noteworthy customers include Charter, Comcast, Verizon, the US Department of Defense, and Carnegie Mellon University. Federated plans to use the Series D proceeds to scale its platform and support further investments in capabilities and partnerships. The company also announced several senior leadership and board appointments to support growth, including Dr. Shaygan Kheradpir on the Board, Chris Swan as Chief Commercial Officer, and Loren Buck as Chief Financial Officer. Federated Wireless is a private-network pioneer that delivers shared-spectrum and private wireless solutions, including a Spectrum Controller and Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS). Its CaaS offering lets enterprises order connectivity from AWS or Azure with Federated Wireless delivering and managing the network, providing cloud scalability, granular policy control, and visibility into performance and usage. The company aims to deliver 4G/5G performance at enterprise Wi-Fi costs and builds on experience managing 150 MHz of CBRS shared spectrum. Federated Wireless plans to expand into the 6 GHz band to create a path to 1,000 MHz of shared spectrum, enabling Wi-Fi 6 and 5G data transfers up to 10 Gbps. Its partner ecosystem includes more than 40 device manufacturers and edge partners, and customers span telecommunications, energy, hospitality, education, retail, office space, municipal and residential verticals with use cases from network densification to Industrial IoT. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Arlington, Va. Federated Wireless develops shared-spectrum CBRS infrastructure and services, including an operational nationwide Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) network and a Spectrum Controller (Spectrum Access System). The company targets wireless carriers, cable companies, utilities and enterprises seeking to augment 5G and private LTE and to enable use cases such as network densification, mobile offload and industrial IoT. Federated reports a customer base of more than 25 companies across telecommunications, energy, hospitality, education, retail, office space, municipal and residential verticals, and a partner ecosystem of over 40 device manufacturers and edge partners. The company says it has completed major deployment milestones and is ready to engage commercial services. The recent financing is intended to accelerate availability and adoption of shared-spectrum CBRS services and support continued industry leadership and delivery. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Arlington, Va., Federated emphasizes collaboration with partners and customers to scale CBRS deployment. Federated Wireless sells the Spectrum Controller, an end-to-end cloud service that enables access, management and optimization of the FCC-approved Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) 3.5GHz band. The product includes a Spectrum Access System (SAS), a nationwide Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) network, spectrum management tools, and an API-centric open partner ecosystem. The Controller is designed to make LTE-ready spectrum immediately accessible to mobile operators, cable operators, enterprises and other providers, improving spectrum efficiency and lowering costs for wireless services. The company has brought the Spectrum Controller to market after more than five years of development and nine months of industry testing, and it already holds conditional FCC certification with full certification anticipated in January 2018. Federated plans to continue working with the FCC, Department of Defense, the Wireless Innovation Forum and the CBRS Alliance to expand use cases and the technology ecosystem. Financially, the company closed a $42M Series B round backed by strategic wireless-industry investors, enabling it to commercialize and scale deployments. The company is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

• Benu Networks

  Participated · Equity · Oct 2014

  Benu Networks develops the Virtual Service Edge (VSE) software platform, which enables rapid creation and delivery of IP services such as Mobile Wi‑Fi, Managed Business Networking, Managed Home Networking, Managed Security, and Managed IoT. The VSE’s fully virtualized architecture increases deployment flexibility, decreases time-to-market, creates new revenue streams, and integrates into operators’ existing access core networks and OSS/BSS assets. Over the past 12 months the company closed two funding rounds totaling $17.5 million to support its growth. The fresh capital will fuel additions to product engineering, sales, and support resources to meet rapid expansion of solution trials and deployments worldwide. Management says the funding will help address concurrent large-scale customer deployments more efficiently and expand overall market share. Benu Networks provides networking and software solutions to network operators deploying Wi‑Fi and cloud services. Its platform is designed to let operators deliver services and manage policies at the user and device level irrespective of access type, enabling new service innovation and revenue models. The company states its mission is to transform operators from providing connectivity to offering revenue‑generating services to subscriber devices and sessions. Benu is venture‑funded and backed by Spark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Comcast Ventures. The company recently announced strategic financing and the hire of industry veteran Dino Di Palma as CEO. Benu says it is positioned to deliver cloud‑based value‑added services to fixed and mobile carriers globally. Benu Networks offers a platform for Carrier Wi‑Fi and HetNet deployments that relocates intelligence and complexity from access networks to the packet core leveraging SDN/NFV. Its solutions address large-scale device management, session control and IP service intelligence for fixed and mobile broadband operators. Founded in 2010, Benu has secured a major North American Tier‑1 customer deployment. The company raised an oversubscribed $26.6M Series B led by Sutter Hill Ventures to accelerate its go‑to‑market strategy and drive customer acquisition. Sutter Hill’s MD Stefan Dyckerhoff will join Benu’s board, and existing investors Spark Capital and Comcast Ventures participated in the round. Benu plans to use the funding to gain market share and maintain its strategic competitive advantage in Carrier Wi‑Fi and HetNet markets.

No current team members are available.