Blues Wireless, a provider of embedded cellular solutions, has secured $22 million (€18.55 million) in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital and Lachy Groom, along with XYZ Venture Capital and returning investor, Bill Gates.
The new funding will be used to expand its global marketing, sales, and operations, and will support further investment in research & development (R&D) for hardware and associated services to integrate data into cloud applications.
Blues Wireless announced the general availability of its flagship product, Notecard, in late 2020. This, it says, is the easiest and most cost-effective way to add LTE and 5G cellular connectivity to most any product or service.
“We offer a simple, affordable solution to a complex and costly problem, helping companies connect their products to the cloud, securely and with minimal effort,” says Ray Ozzie, founder and CEO of Blues Wireless. “Since bringing Notecard to market, we’ve had great feedback and strong demand. This funding, combined with our world-class team and investors, will help to accelerate our progress toward connecting billions of customers’ remote assets to the cloud.”
Whether for asset tracking, remote control, or performance analytics, almost every company now needs to connect their product or service to the cloud to deliver a better customer experience, unlock revenue opportunities, or run a more efficient business. Building, delivering, and securely operating cellular-connected products, however, is a resource-intensive, costly, and complex task that most organisations are not equipped to do on their own.
Blues Wireless is focused on addressing this challenge, providing affordable, quick-to-deploy solutions that take the hassle out of connecting virtually any device or product to the cloud, globally.
“Despite the advent of IoT, most machines and devices are still not connected due to building and shipping complexities. Blues Wireless solves these issues by providing a simple way to build cellular connectivity into any device,” reports Mike Vernal, partner at Sequoia. “We’ve been deep believers in Ray’s vision for mass-scale IoT since the seed, and we are excited to double down as the company grows.”
Blues Wireless previously raised $11 million (€9.27 million) in funding for its seed round in March 2020.
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