Participated · Series D · Feb 2020

Plume builds a cloud‑based platform and mesh Wi‑Fi pods for carriers to improve broadband connectivity in homes and layer on managed smart‑home services. The company partners with broadband providers to sell hardware plus software bundles (for example HomePass with Virgin Media in the U.K.) and plans to expand beyond residential into small business and industrial IoT. Plume said it will use new funding to continue building out its software platform, sign and service more carrier deals, and roll out additional managed services via an app update later this year. The startup has expanded its service set beyond basic Wi‑Fi to include access control, device security, motion sensing and experiments in IOT, health, energy management and home security. CEO and founder Fahri Diner framed the moves as leveraging Plume’s foothold in the connected home while avoiding enterprise campuses. Operating metrics cited in the article show rapid growth: Plume recently added 13 million households in two quarters to reach 35 million homes, 1.2 billion devices on its platform, and 240 carrier customers globally. Plume provides a mesh Wi‑Fi platform (OpenSync) and a suite of white‑labeled smart-home services — branded HomePass — to broadband providers. Its platform includes cloud-based operations tools (Haystack and Harvest) for carrier support, analytics and churn insights. Plume says its technology reaches about 22 million homes and OpenSync covers some 26 million access points, and the company reports roughly 170 carrier customers. It also holds about 170 patents and patent applications underpinning its mesh and software-defined network approach. Plume partners with hardware makers and has numerous carrier customers (some of which have become strategic investors, including Comcast, Charter, Qualcomm, Belkin, Cablevision, Liberty Global and Shaw Communications). The company is based in Palo Alto and emphasizes expanding services beyond connectivity into security, parental controls and other monetizable home services. Plume is a Palo Alto, California-based smart home services company that provides a Consumer Experience Management (CEM) platform powered by OpenSync as a cloud SaaS offering. The platform enables the curation, delivery, support, and management of personalized smart home services and is hardware-independent. OpenSync is an open-source framework that integrates into a broad set of silicon and platform SDKs to connect devices to the Plume Cloud. Plume's solution has been adopted by over 30 communications service providers including Comcast, Charter, Armstrong, Bell, Shaw Communications, Virgin Media, VOO, Melita, and J:COM. Financially, Plume closed an $85M financing that included $60M in Series D preferred equity and $25M in debt, bringing total equity funding to $127M. As part of the financing, Charter Communications' Andrew Ip joined Plume’s Board of Directors. Plume Design develops Adaptive WiFi™, a self-optimizing system driven by the Plume Cloud control plane that dynamically adapts to changing network loads and interference. Its hardware includes Pods—access points placed in every room—to extend coverage, and the Plume Agent can be integrated into third-party gateways, set-top boxes, OTT players, IoT devices and consumer electronics. Led by CEO and co-founder Fahri Diner and based in Palo Alto, the company offers a combined cloud and device solution for ISPs and consumer hardware partners. The company secured $37.5M in funding and has raised over $63M in total equity funding to date. Plume intends to use the capital to accelerate deployment and integration of Adaptive WiFi in ISP networks and third-party hardware, introduce new products, and expand in Silicon Valley and Europe. Tyson Marian of Comcast joined Plume’s board as part of the financing.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2019

Blade is a cloud computing specialist and Next40 member best known for Shadow, its online gaming service. Shadow is described as a high-quality online gaming service with around 70,000 subscribers worldwide. On October 28, 2019, Blade completed a €33.5m capital increase to finance rapid development, attracting historic shareholders and new investors. As part of the operation, 2CRSi took a €2m equity stake through conversion of debt, reinforcing a special partnership between the companies. New CEO Jérôme Arnaud said the raise provides solid visibility to accelerate development and launch new offerings in France and abroad under the new management. The company also highlights commercial ties with OVHCloud and intends to leverage its technological infrastructure performance as a decisive asset for its growth. Blade operates Shadow, a cloud PC service that lets users run high-end Windows 10 games on ordinary devices like older PCs, smart TVs, laptops, Macs, tablets, and smartphones. The service targets low-latency, high‑quality experiences (up to 4K) and requires roughly 15 Mbps for a stable connection. Blade says it can capture and compress 4K images in under three milliseconds by capturing frames inside the graphics chip. The company launched Shadow in France in November 2017 and completed a soft launch in California to validate platform and data-center infrastructure. Blade plans to roll out new services, hire talent in the U.S. and Europe, and expand through partnerships with game studios (Ubisoft Nadeo) and esports organizations (Team Envy). The company has indicated a $35/month pricing target as an alternative to buying an expensive gaming PC.

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.