Wireless startup Fon raises $9.5M
Fon, a Spanish startup hoping to build “the world’s largest wireless community”, has raised $9.5 million in a third round of funding, according to TechCrunch.
Coral Capital Management led the round, with participation from British Telecom, Google, Allen & Co., founder Martin Varsavsky’s Jazzya and Joi Ito’s Digital Garage. Varsavsky says he’ll use the new funding to launch Fon in Russia, and to release a new version of the company’s Fonera router.
We covered the company last… Continue Reading
BT invests in WiFi community start-up, FON
UK’s phone giant BT has invested in the WiFi router start-up FON, in an effort to cover the UK with what they proclaim will be the “world’s largest WiFi community.”
BT has more than 3 million broadband customers. Under the deal, BT will “invite” customers to join FON’s service, but its it not clear why they’d have the incentive to do so. WiFi ventures recently have proven disappointing. There’s lots of competition from 3D broadband providers… Continue Reading
Social router company, FON, raises $13M amid new competition
(Updated, corrected investor information)
FON, the Madrid, Spain company that offers routers to people that FON members can share if they want, has raised a second round of funding.
It has received $13M from existing investors Index Ventures and Google, and from four undisclosed non-US investors (the company says names will be announced at a later date). Its total funding is now $35 million, and comes a time when a raft of competitors have entered the… Continue Reading
BT to mesh with FON?
BT, the giant UK carrier, is on the verge of wrapping up a deal with the Spanish start-up FON, which will let BT customers make cheap calls on FON WiFi hotspots.
Reports about the talks surfaced here (and this story has good details), and a source close to FON tells VentureBeat the deal is near complete.
It is significant, because FON’s routers will give BT Fusion mobile customers a way to share access to their home WiFi… Continue Reading
Whisher tackles FON — launches its own WiFi nation
Honestly, we never got FON, the company that sells a WiFi router so that you can share your WiFi with others.
FON claims 50,000 nodes, and that it is the “largest WiFi network in the world,” so it appears to be having some traction.
Whisher is a new Spanish start-up flogging a similar model — but its offering may be more palatable than FON’s. Whisher has just raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Benchmark Europe… Continue Reading