Iris Capital Announces a Strategic Investment in Leading Wi-Fi Technology Company Celeno
Celeno, a leading provider of smart, managed Wi-Fi solutions, will unveil its new Wi-Fi 6 chipset family set to disrupt Wi-Fi access point design and cost / performance ratio early 2019The investment will support Celeno's expansion in Europe and around the world, especially with new IoT verticals as well as service providers, leveraging Iris Capital's connections and expertise
PARIS, Jan. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Iris Capital, a leading European venture capital firm, announce today that it has led a strategic investment of US$10 million in Celeno, a global leader and innovator in Wi-Fi solutions. This investment, joined by Celeno's existing shareholders, will support Celeno's expansion in Europe and its product development.
As Wi-Fi has become an indispensable part of our lives, with over 10 billion Wi-Fi enabled devices in use worldwide, it is now a strategic imperative for service providers as the ubiquitous touchpoint for broadband services such as data, video and various IoT applications in the home. The growing reliance on Wi-Fi as infrastructure and subscribers viewing Wi-Fi more as a utility than an add-on are causing the demand for Gigabit Wi-Fi to skyrocket, challenging standard equipment that was not designed for this. Celeno is pushing the envelope of Wi-Fi with its groundbreaking silicon and software technology, taking Wi-Fi beyond connectivity and allowing unprecedented capabilities and savings.
Celeno's Wi-Fi chipsets are used globally by OEM customers such as ARRIS, Compal and Samsung in home gateways, routers, set-top boxes, Wi-Fi access points and extenders. Celeno's technology is already deployed in tens of millions of homes worldwide with Tier-1 service providers such as Charter Communications (ex-Time warner Cable) in North America and Vodafone and Liberty Global across 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. The smart Wi-Fi technologies provided by Celeno for these customers include advanced QoS (Quality of Service) management technologies, multi-AP mesh management and smart antenna technology to intelligently manage the connection to each of the many connected devices in the home and enable consumers to achieve true Gigabit speeds in their home.
Early 2019, Celeno will unveil its next generation Wi-Fi 6 chipset which will include many industry-first innovations including Elastic MIMO™, a world-first capability set to revolutionize access-point equipment design by substantially cutting costs and size while doubling the performance.
"We believe that our disruptive, next generation Wi-Fi technology will deliver substantial value to our market as well as new core IoT markets such as smart homes, smart cities, automotive and eHealth. With our high standards of innovation and global roadmap, we were looking for ambitious investors to support our European expansion. Iris Capital is a leading European VC that will help expand our market leadership by leveraging their connections, expertise, and influence," says Gilad Rozen, Founder and CEO of Celeno.
"To support Gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi, especially in a congested and noisy spectrum, breakthrough innovations are required. Celeno's team has built a reputation as one of the best Wi-Fi teams in the world and has already developed disruptive Wi-Fi technology that pushes the technological envelope. Their upcoming products will take Wi-Fi to completely different domains and their strategic industry position made the choice to invest in Celeno obvious for Iris Capital, especially given our relationships with telecom and services providers across Europe. We are proud to fuel this world-class team which is truly advancing the industry," adds Yaron Rosenbaum, Partner at Iris Capital.
About Iris Capital
Iris Capital is a European VC specialized in the digital economy. It fuels entrepreneurs at various stages of maturity, from early-stage to growth equity. With its deep sector specialization and extensive experience acquired over 30+ years, as well as the backing of its corporate sponsors, Iris Capital provides active support to its portfolio companies, through its presence in Paris, Berlin, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Dubai.
IrisNext, Iris Capital's new fund, includes for industry leaders and institutions such as Orange, Publicis, Valeo, Bpifrance and BRED Banque Populaire. Iris Capital investments include, among others, companies such as, Adjust, Careem, Exotec, Happy Car, Hola, Jedox, Kyriba, LeanIX, Open-Xchange, Mojio, Netatmo, reBuy, Scality, Secret Double Octopus, Shift Technology, Studitemps and Talend. For more information, visit www.iriscapital.com
About Celeno
Leveraging Wi-Fi smarts perfected in the home environment, Celeno offers advanced Wi-Fi chipsets, edge software and cloud technology to take Wi-Fi beyond connectivity into the realm of smart homes, smart cities, smart buildings and smart industry. Celeno's field-proven chips and software technology have been successfully integrated into numerous OEM Wi-Fi devices and have been deployed in tens of millions of homes around the world by almost 100 leading service providers worldwide. Founded in 2005 and backed by blue chip investors, Celeno is a well-established company headquartered in Ra'anana, Israel, with a global presence and offices in the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.celeno.com
Media Contact:
Tal Sacharov
Director of Marketing
Celeno
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Celeno and Iris Capital
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