Compared to other companies its size, Google makes few venture investments, preferring to buy companies outright.
However, it has invested less than $1 million into Mountain View wireless router start-up Meraki Networks, according to GigaOm.
The router is being touted as a way to extend municipal WiFi coverage indoors, and appears to be linked to Google’s efforts to create a wireless network in cities like Mountain View and San Francisco.
The router is based on wireless mesh technology developed by co-founder Sanjit Biswas (pictured left, see bio and background) and others at MIT’s Roofnet project3.
Biswas says the funding is a “bridge round,” which refers to funding that helps tide a company over until it can get more cash in a future round of investment. He tells Gigaom that it includes “a few Silicon Valley angels.”
Meanwhile, Google’s talks with San Francisco to implement a city-wide WiFi network drag on, though they appear to be making progress.
We’ve mentioned Meraki before here
Tags: co:google, co:Meraki, people:Kristopher-Tate, people:Sanjit-Biswas3 Comments
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RK said:
Mesh is Interesting technology, but I am not convinced how one can money as Mini ISP (there customers), they need a killer app to enable this product. WiFi router are already cheaply $40 and below available from Belkin, Linksys etc also they are based on open source SW, Seattle wireless has hooks to open existing AP’s from linksys etc..
Also there are already some roadkill in this market such as FON, DeviceScape ( Systems integration company for Wifi Router), Chip vendors are already providing turnkey solution to there customers with open source!
Only innovation Meraki has is there Protocol for Mesh for backhaul communication among’s routers.
Also why would one let some XYZ company control there Wifi Router ? at a cost.
Missing some Value Prop here!
RK
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Brian McConnell said:
I disagree. This may not become a mass market product, but it has a lot of potential uses in wifi+voip networks (campus environments, for example).
I have been testing wifi+voip products, and while they’ve improved a lot (see what Gizmo is up to), there is still a lot of work to be done to make wireless voip work as well as it could.
I don’t think the idea of building commercial consumer networks based on this is particularly interesting, but there are a lot of situations where products like this, if they offer good sys admin and zone-to-zone roaming, will be useful to somebody, and probably for something the founders did not initially expect.
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RK said:
Hi Brian,
I was commenting based on what Meraki is proposing on there Web site i.e they want to sell this Residential customer and Mini ISP’s wanna be.
On your comment VOIP on Wifi Router, problem here are several one is AP to Mobile Client, were one can run the power down of handset due
This is due to MAC layer CSMA/CD protocol design, there are some band aid’s such as 802.11e overlay on top of CSMA/CA, but a time slot based protocol is more efficient such as enhanced TDMA. also on Rapid Hand off between AP’s there is emerging Spec at IEEE. Also there other options such as Meru Networks protocol. On the Mesh side there is Tropos, Packet Hop, Air Pilot and more for Campus, Muni applications.
So once again I belive there are several options out there, But there is no opensource sys admin SW, out there to manage multiple AP’s.
Cheers!
RK
3 Trackbacks
7:57 am
VentureBeat Wire » Google invests less than $1M in Meraki for indoor WiFi said:
[...] See our story here. VentureBeat Community [...]
8:38 pm
The Wannabe Venture Capitalist » Deal Flow: Week Ending December 4, 2006 said:
[...] Fundings: - First Coverage raises $5mm for investment coverage optimization software - iSkoot raises $6.2mm from Khosla Ventures - MusicPlusTV takes first round for music video content - Apex Learning takes on $6mm for digital secondary school curriculum - Five Star Technologies raises $7.1mm led by Morgenthaler - Travelguru.com raises $15mm for online travel in India - BiggerBoat takes on $2.5mm second round for entertainment search - BitTorrent picks up $20mm - Meraki gets less than $1mm from Google for indoor WiFi - Azureus gets $12mm second round [...]
10:48 pm
NextLeap.net » WiFi for the Masses said:
[...] *Â It is noteworthy to state that Google has recently invested in Meraki with 1$M. VentureBeat’s story here. Whisher looks at the problem from a software perspective, and bases its potential on the assumption of collaborative community. Its software opens up your personal WiFi coverage to other Whisher software users, and you hope to find the same hospitality when you are out of your home or office. Of course, as the owner of the connection in your office or network, you have the privilege to limit the speed and decide who connects and who does not. On top, you have the chance to IM with other connected people, all from the interface of Whisher software. [...]