News brief: Enterprise wireless networks specialist raises $12m

• Expeto has developed cloud-hosted software that can manage multi-technology private wireless networks
• It already has relationships with mobile operators, including Canada’s Rogers Communications
• Now it has raised $12m from existing investors plus new backers including Samsung Next

Private wireless networks are all the rage, but a mix of technologies and spectrum bands can cause headaches for the enterprises that are supposed to be benefitting from the deployments. Overcoming that particular network management hurdle by enabling “any kind of mobile connectivity [to become] a seamless part of a privately managed network” is the focus of Expeto, a Vancouver, Canada-based startup that has just raised $12m.

The company has developed a cloud-hosted mobile network management platform, called NeXtworking, that enables IT teams to manage an enterprise wireless network across private deployments and public mobile networks encompassing a mix of technologies (4G, 5G, CBRS) and multiple licensed spectrum bands, which makes monitoring and managing internet of things (IoT) assets a lot easier than using different portals and systems to manage on-site and off-site connectivity. 

The platform can be used by an enterprise or mobile operator that is offering a managed private wireless network service: Canadian operator Rogers Communications is already using the NeXtworking system as the management platform for its Rogers for Business WPN (wireless private network) solution, while mining company Agnico Eagle is using the technology at its Detour Lake mine in Ontario.  

With some real-world relationships and deployments under its belt and having raised $10m in its Series A funding round in April 2021, Expeto has now banked another $12m in its Series B round, which was led by Sorenson Capital and included existing investors Evok Innovations, Lavrock Ventures and Mistral Venture Partners. Additional investors include 5G Open Innovation Lab and Samsung Next, the technology startup-focused investment arm of South Korean giant Samsung Electronics. 

In a blog explaining its decision to invest in Expeto, Andy Duong, an investor at Samsung Next, noted that Expeto’s technology "simplifies enterprise networking over private and public mobile networks. The Expeto platform abstracts the management complexity of multi-geography, heterogeneous networks for fleets of connected devices and applications” and “enables enterprises to control and manage IoT device assets and fleets over private and public cellular networks across multiple sites via a single console. By enabling unique identification of devices, policy lookup across networks, and a single control plane, companies can manage their disparate enterprise 5G networks as if [it were] one logical network, even when roaming between public and private.

“By not competing with cellular providers, Expeto is uniquely positioned to scale quickly by solving telco customer sales friction and by leveraging its customer base as a distribution channel,” he added. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV