Mesh Networking Firm Millennial Net Closes $15M Series B Capital Wireless mesh networking firm Millennial Net Inc. said it has closed $15 million in Series B capital, in what might be its last round.
"If the market grows very fast over the next three years, this could be the last round," said Chief Executive Andy May, who joined the company in September 2003. He believes the start-up may reach profitability as early as 2006. The company is selling its i-Bean networking devices, routers, and gateways, all of which form a mesh network that can transmit data wirelessly. Because of the routers, the data has multiple paths to get to each gateway, unlike most radio systems, which are point-to-point. The i-Beans, which are about the size of a thumb, can last 10 years on a battery and sell for between $50 and $150 each. May said Millennial Net will use its capital to increase its operations in sales, marketing, manufacturing and engineering. The company has 30 employees and will hire another 40 within a year. A large portion of the firm's resources will go to snagging new customers. "The adoption curve for customers is one of the biggest unknowns at this point," said May, explaining that Millennial Net is going after a still developing market. Ember Corp., Crossbow Technology Inc. and Dust Inc. are also start-ups hoping to take a piece of the sensor-based mesh networking market. Customers, which come from the medical, building automation, and industrial automation sectors, started signing on with Cambridge, Mass.-based Millennial Net about nine months ago. May declined to say how many orders customers have placed, but said the firm has shipped samples of its products to more than 100 companies. Most customers use between 10 and 300 i-Beans in a network. Millennial Net believes that building automation will be a large market because its mesh networking system can replace the wired sensor networks now employed in buildings for temperature and humidity control. Today wiring a large building can be expensive, much more costly than the sensors the wires connect. Millennial Net argues that its wireless technology is a cheaper alternative that also happens to be small and reliable. The firm also targets companies making medical equipment, with the goal of wirelessly connecting the equipment and computers used in hospitals. While Millenial Net develops nearly all the hardware and software it sells, it doesn't make its own radios. In addition, the sensors that are used in conjunction with the iBeans are also supplied by customers themselves. http://www.millennial.net _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
