Ember Corporation (www.ember.com), the wireless embedded networking company for industrial and commercial applications, today announced that it has secured an additional $5 million in series A funding. Polaris Venture Partners led the financing round, with new participation from GrandBanks Capital as well as continued support by previous investors DFJ New England and Stata Ventures. Charley Lax, founder and managing general partner of GrandBanks has also joined the Ember Board of Directors.
"GrandBanks Capital makes a great addition to Ember's investment team," said Bob Metcalfe, general partner at Polaris Venture Partners. "Charley Lax is a veteran of Internet infrastructure companies, bringing strong connections for Ember into the Asian market."
Ember provides low-cost, self-organizing wireless communication networking technology to OEMs and System Integrators. Ember's patented EmberNet™ technology is simple to deploy; optimized for long-term, unattended operation; and offers reliable connectivity even in challenging wireless environments. The capital raised will be used to fund commercial deployment of EmberNet technology in industrial and commercial arenas and to explore global market opportunities, particularly Asia, a key customer and partner region for the company.
"Wireless networking plays a vital role in the development of next-generation control systems and we were drawn to Ember by the quality of Global 500 companies that have sought out EmberNet as a wireless solution," said Charley Lax, founder and managing general partner at GrandBanks Capital. "It's a market in search of a technology and we're confident that Ember's unique solution is going to fill that need. The Ember team is off to a strong start, as early deployment of their technology demonstrates, and the latest tranche of funding will fuel their continued momentum."
Lax has a long track record of investments in Internet infrastructure companies, including Art Technology Group (ARTG), Backweb (BKWB), Personalogic (sold to AOL), Impulse Buy Network (sold to Inktomi), Clearcross, and Coradiant. Mr. Lax is also co-founder and a General Partner of both SOFTBANK Venture Capital (Mobius), a multi-stage venture capital firm and SOFTBANK Capital Partners, a strategic late-stage fund. He is also a Director of SOFTBANK Investment America Corporation
With their investment, Lax will represent GrandBanks Capital on the Ember Board of Directors. Other board members include: Robert Poor, founder of Ember; Robert Metcalfe, Polaris Venture Partners general partner and inventor of Ethernet; Rebecca Henderson, Eastman Kodak Professor of management at the Sloan School of MIT and a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research; Todd Hixon, managing director of DFJ New England Fund; and Amy Salzhauer, founder and managing director of Ignition Ventures, Inc.
EmberNet in Action: Beta Tests in Industrial and Commercial Applications
EmberNet is currently in beta tests in industrial and commercial arenas. On the industrial side, EmberNet is currently being tested with an international manufacturing conglomerate. Ember's breakthrough reliability in wireless infrastructure and applications is a significant advancement for industrial systems, where traditional radio networks have generally failed to deliver the reliability and cost savings promised. Other Global 500 beta deployments are scheduled in the first half of 2002 in the gas, oil, and supermarket industries.
In the commercial consumer arena, Ember is also an active participant in the AutoID Center, an industry-funded research program headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., with sister labs at the University of Cambridge, England and the University of Adelaide, Australia. The Center is developing a "smart tag" technology for embedding intelligence, identity, and Internet connectivity into everyday objects that will revolutionize how people make, buy, and use products. The Center is funded by both end-users sponsors such as Procter & Gamble, The Gilette Company, International Paper, Wal-Mart, and Target. Additionally, the Center has technology sponsors which include Alien Technologies, Rafsec, Philips Semiconductors, Sun Microsystems, and other innovative early technology companies. The goal of the AutoID Center is to allow the Internet to extend to everyday objects, connecting everything and everyone to an automated supply chain.
"Over the past six months, we've seen tremendous momentum in our customer and partner development process and we're excited about the addition of GrandBanks Capital to our team," said Adrian Tuck, acting CEO and vice president of business development. "We're confident that our early beta relationships will continue to flourish and that we'll continue to drive innovation as the leader in wireless embedded networking."
About Stata Venture Partners
Stata Venture Partners, founded by Ray Stata, founder and chairman of Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI), is a private equity fund that invests in early stage, new business opportunities around the world. They have strategic investments in a wide array of technologies ranging from Genomic to telecommunications backbone and infrastructure. Stata Venture Partners specializes in helping companies build the internal infrastructure and long term strategic plan required to be successful in today's dynamic marketplace.
