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NTT Leasing joins Wisair's $15.5M Series B financing round led by Apax Partners' Funds
January 26, 2004
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Wisair, a leading Ultra Wide Band (UWB) chipsets and solutions company, announced today that NTT Leasing has joined its series B funding round led by Apax Partners' Funds. Wisair has recently announced this funding which included Vertex, RAD Ventures, Bynet Ventures, Tamar Ventures, and RAD and Bynet founders, Zohar and Yehuda Zisapel.
Wisair develops and markets a high performance wireless communication chipset solution, based on UWB (Ultra Wide Band) technology. This chipset enables the implementation of low cost, low power, and high bit-rate communication modules and system solutions for the fast emerging home/office connectivity market. Wisair is a leading force in the development of the IEEE 802.15.3a standard for the Very High Bitrate Personal Area Network (PAN).
"UWB is a forward looking technology with broad range of applications spanning from consumer electronics to PC and telecommunications oriented products, providing very high speed connectivity across many platforms," said Mr. Muneharu Yamamoto, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Strategic Technology Investment Department at NTT Leasing. "We are very pleased to have participated in Wisair's investment round indicating our confidence in the company and the technology basis it represents," Yamamoto continued.
Wisair Plays Key Role in Multi-band OFDM Proposal
Wisair is a key contributor to the Multi-band OFDM based proposal in the IEEE standards body for the Very High Speed Personal Area Networks, (PAN). MB-OFDM is the winning proposal developed by the MB-OFDM Alliance (MBOA). MBOA is an open, informal industry group dedicated to creating the best technical solution for UWB, meeting market requirements. IEEE is expected to confirm the MBOA proposal in the coming months. This proposal has a vast industry support from the leading consumer electronics and semiconductor manufacturers and various technology companies and academia. It is also a forward looking technology which will allow the standard to be extended to support data rates beyond one giga bit per second, within the current UWB spectrum.
Mr. Mitsuo Ukaji of Wisair-Japan added, "NTT Group's investment is a significant endorsement of Wisair, its technology and its global reach. Japan is one of the world's leading consumer electronics and communications technology development centers and it will be one of the early adapters of the UWB technology." Ukaji continued, "Wisair Japan development center with a license to emit UWB signals assisting our development partners shows our commitment to the Japan market. We will work together with the leading Japanese companies to develop UWB-based consumer equipment. It is very critical to achieve product interoperability across different regions of the world and among many manufacturers."
NTT Leasing Co. Ltd.
Wisair Ltd.
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