Finland-based internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity protocol developer Wirepas has raised €14.4m ($16.1m) in funding from investors including KPN Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications firm KPN.
Government-owned investment firm Finnish Industry Investment (Tesi) also took part in the round, through a mechanism guaranteed by the European Union-run European Fund for Strategic Investments, investing alongside venture capital firms Inventure and Vito Ventures.
Founded in 2010 and based on Tampere University research, Wirepas has created a wireless connectivity protocol dubbed Wirepas Mesh, with parameters specifically tailored to running networks of IoT devices in expansive settings such as smart city management and connected industrial plants.
The capital will be used to fund continued product development and to extend the company’s ecosystem, which already includes a number of unnamed original equipment manufacturers, semiconductor makers and module partners.
Wirepas has now received a total of $24.6m in funding, it said, including $5m secured in a 2016 round backed by ETF Partners, Inventure and Vito Ventures.