Quantenna closes $21 million series E financing round

FREMONT, USA: Quantenna Communications Inc., a leader in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi video networking for whole-home entertainment, has closed a $21 million Series E funding round led by new investor DAG Ventures, with participation from the existing investors Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, and Venrock Associates.

Quantenna’s 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.

The company’s Full-11n chipsets represent the only commercially available solution that offers carrier-grade, industry-standard 802.11n features which are essential for distributing multiple high-definition (HD) video streams throughout the home at full, 1080p resolution.

“DAG Ventures is pleased to be backing such an exciting company,” said Nicholas K. Pianim, MD with DAG Ventures, who joins Quantenna’s board of directors. “Quantenna’s unique video-over-Wi-Fi value proposition has broad and growing appeal, and the company is poised to scale revenue as leading service providers launch advanced video offerings, worldwide.”

“Quantenna’s industry-leading 4x4 MIMO technology enables pervasive HD video streaming over Wi-Fi networks and there is huge demand for this new threshold of performance as measured in bandwidth and reliability,” said David French, Quantenna’s CEO. “This funding will be used to proliferate our products into a broad range of end equipment and to expand our marketing and technical support resources as we grow our customer base globally.”

“802.11n technology will play a critical role in the broad adoption of Internet-enabled living room devices that we forecast to grow at a 34.1 percent CAGR to 430 million units in 2014 -- up from 99.3 million in 2009,” said Jordan Selburn, principal analyst, consumer platforms, with iSuppli.

“Successful deployment of Internet-enabled TVs, video game consoles and set-top boxes requires a network capable of reaching any point in the home with ultra-high reliability, performance and low latency, with bandwidth and levels of Quality of Service sufficient for high-definition video. Advancements in 802.11n technology will position this approach to become a leader in home multimedia networks.”

As the new benchmark in wireless performance, 4x4 MIMO delivers more than double the throughput of 3x3 MIMO, anywhere in the home, at the near-zero packet error rate (PER) required for HDTV streaming. Quantenna’s third-generation Full-11n 4x4 MIMO Wi-Fi chipset delivers this reliability and performance level without a material price premium over lower-performing 3x3 MIMO solutions.

In addition to incorporating all specifications of the IEEE802.11n standard including 4x4 MIMO, the Quantenna solution incorporates extensions to the IEEE802.11n standard including dynamic digital beamforming, wireless channel monitoring and optimizing. These features enable Wi-Fi home networks to deliver the same quality as wired Ethernet while guaranteeing compatibility with existing and future IEEE 802.11n-compliant products.