Growth of the wireless location-pinpointing industry is evident with a flurry of company announcements.
Boston-based Skyhook Wireless said it raised $6.5 million in its first round of Series B financing. The metro Wi-Fi location systems provider said Bain Capital Ventures led the round, along with Intel Capital. Existing investors Innovent, an entrepreneurial division of Nokia Corp., and CommonAngels also participated in the round, bringing the total amount of funds raised to $8.3 million.
In addition, Skyhook Wireless said Ajay Agarwal, venture partner with Bain Capital Ventures, will join its board of directors.
“The market for reliable and easy-to-deploy location technologies is enormous, ranging from E-911 and local search, to personal navigation and asset tracking,” said Agarwal. “We were attracted to the Skyhook positioning approach that relies on industry-standard Wi-Fi technology, which is being built into a myriad of devices from laptops to digital cameras to wireless VoIP phones.”
Skyhook explained that its Wi-Fi positioning system utilizes Wi-Fi rather than GPS or cell towers to pinpoint the location of any Wi-Fi-enabled device within a location network covering 70 cities. The company says its technology turns any Wi-Fi device into a GPS device without adding any hardware.
“This new funding allows us to accelerate our coverage expansion in the United States as well as to begin our expansion into Europe and Asia,” said Ted Morgan, founder and chief executive of Skyhook Wireless.
New York City-based Navizon launched Dec. 20, offering its software-driven, peer-to-peer wireless GPS network free to anyone who does not use it in a commercial application. The company is a spinoff from privately held Mexens Technology, which developed Navizon’s technology.
The company noted that its software can be loaded onto a mobile device, providing the user with geographical positioning information. But the innovation factor of Navizon’s offering is that the software allows users to constantly enhance the mapping information themselves via Wi-Fi Internet access.
“Wi-Fi is primarily known to help you connect to the Internet,” said Cyril Houri, founder and chief executive of both Mexens Technology and Navizon. “Navizon utilizes Wi-Fi and cellular signals to help you find your way around most cities and to provide you with pertinent information about your location. What makes Navizon unique is that the network will continue to expand as the community expands. This shared information is at the very center of what makes Navizon a powerful tool.”
Although Navizon has not announced any deals with carriers, the company says its network has more than 5,000 users and pointed out that its content is not dependent upon a specific carrier.
Meanwhile, wireless GPS software and hardware developer LastMile Communications launched a U.S. subsidiary in Raleigh, N.C.
The company said Skip Ballou will lead LastMile USA as the company focuses on strategic partnering and sales opportunities in North America.
“LastMile USA gives us the point of presence to effectively engage all of our strategic partners, local government initiatives and business-to-business customers in North America,” said Ballou. “We’re looking forward to teaming with network operators, utilities, telecommunications companies and world-class content providers to help them serve the communities in which they operate and create new revenue channels by leveraging LastMile technology.”
The company also announced it has appointed 28-year telecommunications industry veteran Robert Turner as chairman of the company’s board of directors. In addition, the LastMile said it hired long-time IBM marketing executive Gabriel Vizzard as its director of marketing. The company said Vizzard will be responsible for marketing, business development and solutions strategy for all of LastMile’s offerings, including in the United States.
