Google invests less than $1M in Meraki for indoor WiFi
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
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
