Quantenna Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, raised $21 million in a Series E round of financing for its 4X4 MIMO 802.11n chipsets designed for next gen home networking applications. The funding was led by new investor DAG Ventures, with participation by each of the company's largest investors including Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross, and Venrock Associates.
Quantenna leverages dynamic digital beamforming to deliver very high-speed wireless coverage throughout the whole home for sharing high definition (HD) video and multimedia content between home gateways and TVs. Quantenna's silicon is targeted at devices such as home residential gateways, set-top boxes, routers, HDTVs and consumer electronic devices, which all require high bandwidth and reliability to support whole home HD video distribution and networking over standard Wi-Fi networks.
Quantenna said the new funding will be used to help extend its global leadership position in 4x4 MIMO 802.11n Wi-Fi chipsets and accelerate product deployment through carriers and retail channels worldwide. Independent tests of 802.11n antenna configurations show that 4x4 MIMO delivers more than double the throughput of 3x3 MIMO throughput, anywhere in the home, at the near-zero packet error rate (PER) required for HDTV streaming.
"This record financing round for Quantenna is a testament to our growing traction in reliable Wi-Fi video service deployment through leading carriers and home networking vendors, as next-generation standards-based 802.11n 4x4 MIMO becomes the top choice for broadband video entertainment networking in the home," said David French, Quantenna's CEO. "In addition to supporting continued R&D advances, this funding will be used to execute product cost reductions as we accelerate high-volume mainstream deployment, and to expand our marketing, engineering and technical support resources as we rapidly increase our customer engagements, worldwide."http://www.quantenna.com
- In May 2010, Quantenna Communications introduced its third-generation Full-11n 4x4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) chipset, enabling whole-home video distribution of multiple HD streams using 802.11n Wi-Fi. Its newest 802.11n Wi-Fi chipset breaks ground in several ways.
- In February 2010, Quantenna Communications raised $15 million in a Series D round of financing for its 4X4 MIMO 802.11n chipsets designed for next gen home networking applications. This round of funding came from Grazia Equity, Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross, Swisscom, and Venrock Associates.
First, the design has been optimized for volume production and the company estimates it is approaching the 3x3 MIMO price range. Device size has been cut in half and power consumption by one-third as compared to previous solutions. It incorporated features that simplify transceiver certification in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Error vector magnitude (EVM) and phase-noise performance have both been enhanced to boost range and reliability, and the chipset's receiver linearity significantly reduces interference. Quantenna said its solution can reliable deliver multiple HD video streams (100+ Mbps) over distances of 100 feet or more. Quantenna's third-generation chipset incorporates all specifications in the IEEE802.11n standard including 4x4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). It also incorporates extensions to the IEEE802.11n standard including dynamic digital beamforming, and wireless channel monitoring and optimizing. Furthermore, Quantenna has increased channel bandwidth to 80MHz. This will be useful because the IEEE is working on a new 802.11ac specification that promises speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps. Quantenna will leverage these capabilities.
David French, Quantenna's CEO, said that while other Wi-Fi silicon companies have focused on Wi-Fi designs for mobile handsets, his company has focused on the problem of in-home video delivery. Quantenna believes it is 12 months ahead of other companies in developing 4x4 MIMO silicon. In addition, Quantenna's beamforming technology and dynamic channel characterization enable high performance video bridging between home gateways and set-top boxes, TVs and other consumer electronics.
