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Stoke, a Silicon Valley company building a technology that allows multiple telecom networks to talk with each other — from WiFi, WiMax and others — has raised financing from one of the world’s fastest major telecommunications companies, Reliance Communications.
The amount was undisclosed, but a source told VentureBeat is was on the order of $10 million, or similar to the investment Reliance made recently in E-Band Communications, a US-based company that makes high-capacity wireless systems for the 70/80 GHz E-band spectrum.
Reliance is run by Anil Ambani (pictured here), reportedly the third-richest man in the India. [Update: The data on wealth is confusing. While Forbes in one report apparently puts Ambani's wealth at $45 billion (which would make him the 4th wealthiest in the world), in another it estimates his worth at $18.2 billion.]
Reliance serves more than 35 million users.
Stoke carries some cache, because it is backed by two of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, and because it’s one of the few ambitious wireless telecom startups to emerge in Silicon Valley in recent years. It has raised more than $50 million from its investors, which also include DAG Ventures. (We described Stoke in more detail when it raised a financing round earlier this year.)
Reliance of India, meanwhile, becomes Stoke’s first customer endorsement to be made public. In an interview, Stoke’s VP of marketing, Keith Higgins said Reliance is one of the more active telecom companies experimenting with technologies on the “edge,” or the place where its wireless various networks converge. These networks range from CDMA, to GSM, to the more futuristic WiMax and LTE. Stoke provides “convergence gateways” for multi-platform operators such as Reliance. When you arrive home from work, for example, and enter your house, Stoke lets your cellphone automatically switch from a cellular network outside to detect your home WiFi network.
The company had always expected that it would market its products first to foreign carriers, because “they’re moving faster,” Higgins said.
Stoke’s product is still being developed, and will likely need another round of funding at some point. Higgins said the company has enough money to last through to next year.
Tags: co:Stoke, deal, inv:kleiner-perkins, inv:Sequoia-Capital5 Comments
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Sanjay Vijayakumar said:
Some Market data Update -
Reliance Communication is the No 2 Operator in India with 39.39M users closely followed by Vodafone with 38.56M and state owned BSNL with 35M . This is data till Nov 07 and from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India - http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/519/pr24dec07no104.pdf
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Indradeep said:
Just correcting a small typo - Anil Ambani is the 3rd richest Indian and not of the whole world (he is 18th) … thanks for your awesome blog … been following it for the last 2 years since I myself started my career in an Indian startup … cheers
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Matt Marshall said:
Thanks, I’ve updated on the wealth issue. The International Business Times says Forbes puts his wealth at $45 billion, but then you look at the Forbes report and it says something different. Anyone know how to reconcile this?
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Sanjay Vijayakumar said:
Hello Matt, These figures keep changing every two weeks that almost every report becomes outdated, thanks to the bull run in the Indian Stock Market. Reliance Power, India’s biggest IPO is set to list soon and the numbers would change again on wealth. But yes, the common report states his wealth to be 45B$.
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JKY said:
Stoke has been launching and relaunching its
product for awhile now. Their founders are all
pretty much gone. Their employee count also
has shrunk significantly since the last round.
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