Finland’s Wirepas raises €20.7M to build low-cost wireless IoT networks

Wirepas, a Tampere-based company building scalable fail-proof IoT networks, has raised €20.7 million in a funding round led by Highland Europe. Amalfi and IQT also joined the round, along with existing investors ETF Partners, KPN Ventures, Vito Ventures, and Vesa Laisi.

• Launched in 2010 as a spin-off of the University of Tampere, Wirepas has built a platform with an autonomous and decentralised approach that uses algorithms and a unique mesh architecture to connect as many as 16 million networks, each having 4 billion devices at a time.
• The solution enables smart tracking, smart building, smart manufacturing, and smart metering for the clients. Wirepas’ unique multi-hop mesh network solution increases profitability for large-scale enterprises in the fast growing Internet of Things market.
• Since its launch, Wirepas has expanded globally with offices in Australia, Germany, Finland, France, India, and the US. The company currently has over 160 partners, with more than 7 million devices connected via Wirepas.

“Wirepas isn’t just an incremental improvement over existing technologies – this technology is setting a new standard for what’s possible. By offering a solution that is cost-effective and scalable, Wirepas addresses the two most significant barriers to IoT adoption,”

Laurence Garrett, Partner at Highland Europe, commented.

• Highland Europe, an investor European internet companies, is the lead investor during this round. New investors Amalfi and IQT also participated in the funding, as did the previous investors ETF Partners, KPN Ventures, Vito Ventures, and Vesa Laisi.
• In addition to Wirepas’ new investors, and those investors which have returned for this round, the company is also backed by Inventure, Karma Ventures, and Tesi.
• The funding will be used to further expand Wirepas’ technology and solutions globally, with a focus on becoming the standard in IoT connectivity.