Airgain Completes $4.8 Million Venture Capital Financing
Northwater Capital and GEN3 Capital back Smart Antenna Innovator
Carlsbad, CA, July 15, 2005 — Airgain, Inc., a developer of high-performance smart antenna solutions for the WLAN market, today announced it has closed a $4.8 million financing, led by Northwater Capital through its Northwater Intellectual Property Fund LP1, and with continuing support from GEN3 Capital Fund I LP. This brings the total capital raised by the company since July 2003 to over $6.8 million. Airgain plans to use the new resources to focus on growing its engineering organization, enhancing existing products, and developing solutions for additional markets.
Pertti Visuri, CEO of Airgain, said, "We greatly appreciate GEN3 Capital's ongoing participation in the growth of our company, and are extremely pleased to begin working with Northwater Capital as well. Our investors represent a powerful blend of IP and technology expertise, which will be invaluable as we continue to build Airgain. We're excited to begin rolling out our new antenna solutions for the home WLAN market, and this round of funding gives us the necessary capital to deliver on our vision for this industry segment.
The market for WLAN devices is expected to surge from approximately 115 million units in 2005 to 487 million units by 2009 (Source: IDC). Several trends favor Airgain's high performance smart antenna solutions, including: (i) growing penetration of broadband Internet connections; (ii) coverage limitations of standard antennas; (iii) increasing use of WLAN devices in the home and office; and (iv) demand for enhanced coverage and throughput from emerging WLAN devices in home electronics appliances.
Airgain will be introducing several smart antenna hardware and software solutions over the next few months to meet the demands of a diverse set of customers and partners. This financing will be used to continue development of Airgain's patented smart antenna technology for a variety of product categories, including access points, routers, DSL gateways, and client devices.
About Northwater Intellectual Property Fund LP1
Northwater Intellectual Property Fund LP1 is managed by Northwater Capital Management Inc., a leading investment management company, wholly owned by its employees. Northwater manages over US $8.5 billion in assets, applying innovative investment strategies and sophisticated proprietary software in assisting major institutions to build optimal portfolios. In particular, Northwater applies the sciences of advanced finance and systems engineering toward the objective of delivering highly diversified market returns plus robust alpha. For more information please see www.northwatercapital.com.
About GEN3 Capital LP
GEN3 Capital Fund I LP is based in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. The Fund, through its exclusive relationship with GEN3 Partners, has unique access to the Russian scientific community for identification of leading edge technologies in the areas of wireless communications, energy storage and non-invasive medical technologies. GEN3 Partners is a global product innovation consulting firm that dramatically improves the impact, predictability and productivity of the corporate innovation process. For more information please see www.GEN3.com.
About Airgain
Airgain is a leading smart antenna and wireless systems developer focused on improving the mass market’s wireless connectivity experience through its embedded antenna technology and modular wireless system products. Our innovative antenna solutions and systems open up exciting new possibilities in residential wireless services requiring design flexibility and reliable, whole-home wireless data and video coverage. Airgain’s expanded portfolio of embedded antenna products includes its flagship, high performance MaxBeam product line for 802.11b/g and 802.11n MIMO systems, and its new Profile family of low-profile PCB antennas for increased design flexibility. Airgain supplies its embedded antennas and systems to original equipment and design manufacturers worldwide from its headquarters in Carlsbad, California, which is supported by an Asian office in Taipei, Taiwan and research center located in St. Petersburg, Russia. For more information, visit www.airgain.com.
Airgain and the Airgain logo are registered trademarks of Airgain, Inc.
Company Contact
Airgain, Inc.
Glenn Selbo
VP, Marketing & Business Development
Airgain, Inc.
+1 760.579.0200
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Julie Wright
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