NovaUCD-based advanced wireless systems developer Socowave has secured €3m in Series A investment in a round led by Barry Maloney’s Balderton Capital. The company’s technology can boost a base station’s capacity five-fold.
The funding will enable Socowave to accelerate the development of technology that substantially increases the data handling capacity of cellular radio infrastructure whilst reducing the energy consumption.
Socowave’s Active Antenna System technology allows the cellular base station, for the first time ever, to detect the direction of incoming signals from user groups and to actively optimise the radio link using digital techniques.
This new class of base station technology increases wireless data handling capacity five-fold, while reducing the energy consumption of the overall base station system by 50pc through eliminating inefficient base station components and locating certain elements inside the antenna housing.
Barry Maloney, Partner at Balderton Capital, will join the Socowave board.
The future of radio
“The mobile infrastructure industry is urgently seeking step-function improvements in radio access network performance as mobile operators struggle to cope with the massive uptake in smartphone usage and its impact on their networks,” Joe Moore, founder and chief executive of Socowave explained.
“This funding from Balderton Capital provides Socowave with resources to accelerate the development of our Active Antenna System technology platform, delivering a new class of radio access platform for 3G, LTE and 4G cellular networks. We are delighted to welcome Barry Maloney to the Socowave board and we value the telecoms sector expertise and insight he can offer.”
Socowave is headquartered in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin and its R&D centre is located in the National Software Centre, Cork. The company is supported by Enterprise Ireland.
“Joe Moore and his team at Socowave are developing a truly disruptive wireless solution that will greatly enhance the performance of radio access networks for mobile communications by increasing the network capacity and reducing costs,” Barry Maloney explained.
“We have great confidence in the potential of this technology and in Joe’s ability to lead the company through the next stage of development and commercialisation,” Maloney added.
