Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has participated in a $15 million funding round for Cambridge-based small cell market leader ip.access, alongside other existing investors and a major new backer.
The funds raised will be used to accelerate the rollout and deployment of the company’s portfolio of innovative small cell (femtocell) base station products that plug into broadband routers, boosting mobile phone coverage in areas with poor signal reception.
The company’s products are gaining increasing traction as mobile operators look to femtocells to increase network capacity in order to cope with increased data traffic. SEP first invested in ip.access in 2006 and participated in the current round alongside Amadeus, Cisco, Intel Capital, Qualcomm, Rothschild & Cie Gestion, and TE Connectivity.
CEO Simon Brown said: “We are delighted with this show of support from our investor partners. The small cell market has enormous growth potential. With our expertise in large scale femtocell deployments, recently passing the market-leading half-million deployed milestone, we are in a great position to capitalise on the growing market demand for small cells.”
The company, whose products are already deployed in homes, offices and mobile hotspots worldwide, has won numerous awards for its core femtocell technology Oyster 3G® which is integrated by OEMs into home gateways, set-top boxes and other home devices. Last week ip.access also unveiled a miniature prototype of an advanced femtocell concept (AFC), the size of a smartphone which offers a portable and lightweight solution to boosting signal coverage and which can connect to the internet via a router or WiFi.