Skyhook Wireless Closes $6.5 Million In Venture And Corporate Funding Round; Bain Capital Ventures and Intel Join Innovent, Nokia as New Investors in Wi-Fi Location Provider.BOSTON -- Skyhook Wireless Skyhook Wireless is a service for determining geographical location by looking up the MAC Addresses of nearby Wireless Access Point in a proprietary database and inferring the position of the device by the relative strength of the signals. , provider of the industry's first Wi-Fi based metro-area positioning system, today announced it has secured $6.5 million in a first round of venture capital and new corporate financing. Series B participants included new investors Bain Capital Bain Capital LLC is a Boston, Massachusetts-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, and two other partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company: T. Coleman Andrews III and Eric Kriss. Ventures, which led the round, and Intel Capital. Existing investors Innovent, an entrepreneurial innovation unit in Nokia, and CommonAngels also participated in this round which brings total funds raised to $8.3 million. Ajay Agarwal, venture partner with Bain Capital Ventures, will join Skyhook's Board of Directors. "The market for reliable and easy-to-deploy location technologies is enormous, ranging from E911 and local search to personal navigation and asset tracking," said Ajay Agarwal, venture partner, Bain Capital Ventures. "We were attracted to the Skyhook sky·hook or sky-hook n. A helicopter whose fuselage is configured so as to be mounted with a steel line and hook used to lift and transport heavy objects. Noun 1. positioning approach that relies on industry standard Wi-Fi technology which is being built into a myriad Myriad is a classical Greek name for the number 104 = 10 000. In modern English the word refers to an unspecified large quantity. The term myriad is a progression in the commonly used system of describing numbers using tens and hundreds. of devices from laptops to digital cameras to wireless VOIP See voice over Wi-Fi. phones. We are excited to lead Skyhook Wireless' first round of venture funding and look forward to contributing to its success." "Intel has played a pivotal role in the explosive growth of Wi-Fi enabling new applications for service providers, enterprises and consumers. Our investment in Skyhook Wireless underscores the continued evolution of this technology," said Scott Darling, vice president, Intel Capital. "Through our research work with Place Lab (www.placelab.org) we have explored next-generation location technologies for several years and our investment in Skyhook Wireless is an extension of that focus." "Skyhook's location technologies enable the creation of innovative and valuable user experiences as the next generation of Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices come to market," said Stephanie Keller-Bottom, director, Innovent. "We are proud to continue our support for Skyhook Wireless by participating in this round and look forward to collaborating with the team at Skyhook to explore the evolution of these exciting new market opportunities to deliver mobile location-based services See mobile positioning. using their unique capabilities." "This round of funding, with significant contributions from a top-tier venture capital firm and two of the world's most prestigious corporations, further validates the uniqueness of our technology and ability to deliver reliable location capabilities today," said Ted Morgan
The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS See Windows Printing System and Workplace Shell. (unit) wps - (Obsolete) Words per second (mostly used for Telex and TWX transmission). ) from Skyhook Wireless is the first indoor-outdoor positioning system that utilizes Wi-Fi rather than GPS or cell towers to accurately pinpoint location. The Skyhook solution includes a national location network covering the top 70 cities in the United States that can accurately pinpoint location on any Wi-Fi enabled device. Because WPS requires no specialized spe·cial·ize v. spe·cial·ized, spe·cial·iz·ing, spe·cial·iz·es v.intr. 1. To pursue a special activity, occupation, or field of study. 2. hardware, works inside or out and acquires a location in less than a second, it solves the problems associated with existing location systems. The Skyhook system also integrates both GPS and IP location technologies on top of its core Wi-Fi positioning in order to provide the optimal location readings at all times. About Skyhook Wireless Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested con·gest·ed adj. Affected with or characterized by congestion. congested ENT adjective Referring to a boggy blood-filled tissue. See Nasal congestion. downtown areas. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA and is privately held. For more information on the company and its Wi-Fi positioning system, visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to info@skyhookwireless.com or call 781.898.0495. About Bain Capital Ventures Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Bain Capital, leverages the institutional advantages and consulting-based approach of Bain Capital to build industry-leading businesses. Focusing on sectors such as software, wireless, healthcare, business services, and consumer, Boston-based Bain Capital Ventures benefits from the broader resources of Bain Capital, which includes over 200 investment professionals, a network of over 225 portfolio companies, over $25 billion of assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. , and the knowledge from 20 years of successful venture investing venture investing The acquiring of a stake in a start-up company by a brokerage firm or analyst by obtaining discounted, pre-IPO shares. Critics claim venture investing causes analysts to have a vested interest in seeing a stock appreciate in value and so . For more information, visit www.baincapitalventures.com About Intel Capital Intel Capital, Intel's venture investment program, focuses on making minority equity investments to grow the Internet economy The Internet Economy refers to conducting business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. An Internet economy differs from a traditional economy in a number of ways, including: communication, market segmentation, distribution costs, and price. in support of Intel's strategic interests. Intel Capital invests in hardware, software and services companies in several market segments, including computing computing - computer , networking, and wireless communications wireless communications System using radio-frequency, infrared, microwave, or other types of electromagnetic or acoustic waves in place of wires, cables, or fibre optics to transmit signals or data. . Intel Capital has invested more than US$4 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in more than 30 countries since 1991. Since its inception, about 160 portfolio companies have been acquired by other companies and another 150 have gone public on various exchanges around the world. Intel Capital employs investment managers in about 25 countries worldwide. Last year alone, Intel Capital invested more than US$130 million in about 110 deals with approximately 40 percent of its investments made outside the United States. For more information, visit www.intel.com/capital. About Innovent Innovent, an entrepreneurial innovation unit in Nokia Ventures Organization, connects to the pulse of emerging markets to explore innovation options for Nokia. Innovent offers a collaborative environment for early-stage entrepreneurs working on concepts that facilitate connections between people, their communities and the things that matter to them. Innovent offers expertise and resources to clarify the opportunity behind their visions and accelerate the process between concept development and commercialization, within a framework of mutual trust. http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,54249,00.html About CommonAngels Named after the Boston's historic public meeting grounds, CommonAngels is a group of 65 leading private investors and several dozen limited partners in two co-investment funds. Since 1998, CommonAngels has funded 28 companies with over $30 million from CommonAngels and over $100 million from co-investors. www.commonangels.com |
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