US-based wi-fi chip company Quantenna Communications, backed by telecoms companies Telefonica and Swisscom’s corporate venturing units, has raised $79m.
The round was led today by Rusnano, a Russian government-backed venture fund, and was joined and introduced by Bright Capital, the $350m corporate venturing unit of Russia-based conglomerate Ru-Com,.
Existing investors including venture firms Sequoia Capital, Dag Ventures, Grazia Equity, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Venrock Associates took part in the round. Rusnano would invest up to $40m and Sequoia Capital Growth Fund would contribute $20 million, Quantenna said.
Wi-Fi chips that offer the industry’s highest performance and coverage while providing wire-like reliability for wireless video content distribution around the home and other demanding applications.
In November Telefonica Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the Spain-based group, backed Quantenna. Terms were undisclosed, although it is understood the investment was in the single-digit millions.
Telefonica Ventures joined Swisscom Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the Swiss-based telecoms group, and venture firms Sequoia Capital, Venrock, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, DAG Ventures and Grazia Equity.
The company had previously raised at least $78m. In September last year Quantenna raised a $21m Series E round led by DAG and the company’s series D round raised $15m. The company’s series C round raised $13.85m in 2009, which at that time took the total raised by the company to more than $42m.
Enrique Blanco, chief technology officer, Telefonica, said of the latest $79m round: "Successful deployment of wireless Internet-enabled TVs, video game consoles and set-top boxes demands that multiple high-definition video streams can be distributed to any point in the home with ultra-high reliability and performance at full, 1080p resolution. This requires 802.11n at 5GHz technology with the right feature set for delivering the optimum subscriber experience."