The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.
—Acuity: Navteq made an equity investment into Acuity Mobile Inc., a mobile location-based advertising delivery company based in Greenbelt, Md. In addition, Navteq extended its licensing of Acuity’s technologies.
—DesignArt Networks: Motorola Inc.’s Motorola Ventures venture capital arm made an equity investment in DesignArt Networks, which provides silicon-on-chip solutions for WiMAX radio access network infrastructure. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The round also included participation from Carmel Ventures and Magma Venture Partners.
—Iamota: Seed investors and management team members invested $1 million of seed round funding into Iamota, a Mobile Application Service Provider that helps brands and agencies sell to mobile consumers.
—Numobiq: Benchmark Capital invested $4.5 million in a Series A funding round into Numobiq Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif.-based which offers a platform for enabling mobile content and services.
—PacketExchange: DFJ Esprit and Bank of Scotland Growth Equity led a $12 million Series B funding round into PacketExchange, a U.K.-based company that provides wide-area Internet exchange services. In conjunction with the funding, PacketExchange also appointed Rick Mace to CEO of the company. PacketExchange said it will use the funding to expand its current network operations and global reach.
—Ringleader Digital: W2 Group led a $6 million Series A round of funding into Ringleader Digital, the mobile advertising company formerly known as MoPhap. Ringleader said it will use the funding to continue building its mobile advertising network, bolster corporate development and increase global marketing efforts.
—Sequans: Reliance Technology Ventures and Swisscom invested $28 million into Paris-based Sequans Communications, which supplies fixed and mobile WiMAX chips. The investment was made in the form of equity-based and convertible debt financing. The company said it will use the funding to bolster its presence in the WiMAX market and to expand its international customer support centers.
—VKernel: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners co-led a $4.6 million round of funding into Portsmouth, N.H.-based VKernel Corp., which provides virtual appliances for managing virtual server environments. VKernel said it will use the funds to advance product development, increase sales and expand its market awareness. Mitchell Kertzman of Hummer Winblad and Dave Barrett of Polaris will join VKernel’s board of directors as part of the funding round.
