PETACH TIKVA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Siklu Inc., a pioneer in the wireless backhaul market today announced closing of its $19 million Series B investment. New investors in this round include Amiti Ventures, Qualcomm Incorporated and another undisclosed category leading strategic investor. They have been joined by all existing investors: DFJ- Tamir Fishman Ventures, Evergreen Venture Partners and Argonaut Private Equity. Ben Rabinowitz, Managing Partner at Amiti Ventures, will join the Board of Directors of Siklu.
Siklu delivers scalable and flexible carrier-grade millimeter wave Gigabit Ethernet radio solutions. These state-of-the-art, advanced architecture solutions offer unparalleled price-performance value. Providing the industry's lowest total cost of ownership, and incorporating on-board advanced networking capabilities, solutions from Siklu are ideally suited for mobile backhaul, Carrier Ethernet business services, enterprise, and vertical applications in developed and emerging markets.
Siklu, already recognized as having the widest and deepest IP and technology advantage in the industry, will use the funding to further extend its leadership to picocell backhaul products for 4G/LTE and beyond, and to expand its marketing and sales activities to the U.S. and Indian markets.
“Backhaul has become an important consideration for operators as they continue to expand their high-speed 3G networks and plan their 4G strategies,” said Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President of Qualcomm Ventures. “Siklu has taken a creative approach to this challenge with its miniature picocell architecture, giving operators a cost-effective means to bolster their backhaul capacity. We’re looking forward to working with Siklu.”
“Data explosion, driven by growth of smart phones and tablets, necessitates need for cost-effective and reliable carriage of data. Siklu’s innovative design provides a simple and reliable solution while dramatically reducing cost,” said Anil Khatod, Managing Director of Argonaut Private Equity, and former Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer and President, Optical & Internet Solutions of Nortel Networks.
Khatod and Argonaut, together with DFJ- Tamir Fishman Ventures Managing General Partner Eldad Tamir and Evergreen Venture Partners General Partner Adi Gan, invested in the early stage of Siklu.
“It was evident that the product vision, wide technology platform and extremely capable team would create a category leader in this fast-growing market. The expanding backhaul market, and the exceptional execution of Siklu, made it easy for us to support the company, and we are happy to embrace the new investors on our way to a promising future,” Khatod added.
“We are excited to have Qualcomm on our side for the recognition it signals in Siklu’s role in cellular backhaul, and for the insight it provides us into the fourth generation cellular network,” said Izik Kirshenbaum, Co-Founder, Chairman and President of Siklu. “This investment is yet another milestone in the incredible year we are experiencing in 2011, on top of industry awards, hundreds of links deployed in Europe, our first trials in the U.S. and India, and design wins from leading mobile operators.”
About Siklu
Siklu Inc. (www.siklu.com) has been committed to reducing the cost of high capacity wireless backhaul solutions since 2008. The company's success centers on an innovative silicon-based design of the millimeter wave radio system and components that has resulted in systems priced as low as 20% of competition. The EtherHaul radios deliver Gigabit speeds over the uncongested millimeter wave spectrum and are ideal for a urban wireless backhaul of macro, micro and pico-cells. Serving providers around the world, Siklu Inc. is a Delaware company with its R&D and Operation center based near Tel Aviv, Israel.
About Amiti Ventures
Amiti Ventures (http://www.amitiventures.com) is a venture capital firm based in Chicago that invests alongside leading Israeli venture capital firms in late stage Israeli high tech companies. Amiti helps fund Israeli entrepreneurs and partner with them to build great global companies.
About Qualcomm Ventures
Qualcomm Ventures (http://www.qualcomm.com/ventures), the venture investment group of Qualcomm Incorporated, was launched in the United States in November 2000 with an initial $500 million allocation. Qualcomm Ventures’ aim is to support Qualcomm’s mission of enabling and fostering 3G and wireless Internet markets through investments in privately owned startup ventures. These investments include companies focusing on wireless communication technologies and products serving consumer, enterprise and vertical markets worldwide.