Enterprise Wi-Fi provider Xirrus has raised $23.5 million in a Series E financing round aimed at accelerating its global sales growth by pushing into Europe and Asia-Pac. It also plans to use the funds to develop new products.
The Series E round was led by existing investors August Capital, Canaan Partners, InterWest Partners, QuestMark Partners, and US Venture Partners.
“With this newest round of funding, we are able to develop new markets in Europe and Asia Pacific,” said Shane Buckley, CEO of Xirrus, in a statement. “We are 100% focused on extending our leadership in delivering wired performance for the new age of wireless-based BYOD and rich-media applications.”
Xirrus believes it’s well placed to take advantage of the BYOD (bring your own device) trend that’s driving demand for mobile devices and apps in businesses — thereby increasing the need for robust and secure enterprise Wi-Fi networks capable of dealing with the device influx.
The company’s technology includes Wi-Fi Arrays that each include between two and 16 radios, a high-gain directional antenna, onboard multi-gigabit switch, controller, firewall, threat sensor and a spectrum analyzer to improve coverage and performance.
Xirrus claims its kit supports up to four times more coverage, and eight times more bandwidth and capacity than “conventional AP technology”. The result? Souped up wireless networks capable of providing businesses with wire-like performance.
“The global enterprise market for WLAN continues to see double digit growth as organizations grapple with the reality that wireless is becoming the defacto access layer,” said Steve Krausz, General Partner at US Venture Partners, in a supporting statement. ”Xirrus, with its innovative Wireless Array technology and rapidly growing partner programs, is well positioned to lead the industry as it evolves from wired to wireless access.”
“Wireless has gone from being a ‘nice to have’ overlay technology to the primary connection,” added Zeus Karravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research, in a statement. “Wireless networks can be every bit as fast and secure as wired networks. But IT leaders must be laser focused on delivering the needed performance that gives users a rock-solid wireless experience.”
