Wireless USB on the way — Wisair grabs $24M
Wisair, an Israeli ultra-wideband firm, has raised a large round of funding and says it’s gearing up to deliver more wireless USB products to the market, a technology that could cut down on the clutter of wires on the average computer user’s desk.
USB is the standard connection for most electronics that you hook up to your computer, among them cameras and MP3 players, and some equipment like the keyboard and mouse. Wired USB hasn’t been replaced by a technology like Bluetooth because wired connections provide much higher data transfer rates than any wireless product currently on the market can support.
Wireless USB technology makes use of ultra-wideband, a radio standard that’s short range but has very high bandwidth, reaching speeds of nearly 500 megabytes per second in perfect conditions. That’s plenty for any regular data transfer.
However, there’s competition from every angle. Aside from other ultra-wideband startups like Artimi and Tzero (coverage here and here), companies making Bluetooth-capable electronics are using UWB to make it more competitive, and next-generation WiFi technologies are also catching up.
Wisair’s current product is a pair of dongles, one of which connects to a device and the other to your computer, which can then communicate with each other. To continue being competitive in the future, the company will likely have to miniaturize further and convince electronics companies to include WUSB in their products.
The $24 million funding was led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, a private equity fund. Also participating were new investors Advent Venture Partners, Bridge Capital Fund of Japan and Yasuda Ventures, and existing investors Apex Partners, Broadcom, Intel Capital, Vertex, and the Zisapel brothers.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.