Israeli startup Celeno Communications today completed a $38 million financing round. Founded in 2005 by president and CEO Gilad Rozen, the company supplies chips and software technology for managed WiFi apps. Red Dot Capital Partners, which focuses on investments in growth companies, led the round.
New investors participated in the current round, including Poalim Capital Markets, and the OurCrowd investment fund. Previous investors also took part, including Liberty Global, Cisco, Pitango Venture Capital, 83North (formerly Greylock Israel), Vintage Investment Partners, and Miven. According to figures from the IVC databse, Celeno has raised $107 million since it was founded, including the round announced today.
Celeno has 120 employees, including 85 in its Ra'anana headquarters. The company also has representatives in the US, Europe, and Asia. Celeno today said that it would use the money raised to recruit 20 employees in a variety of areas, among other things. Market sources believe that the company's annual turnover is in the high tens of millions of dollars. At the same time, a source close to the company declined to comment on the question of whether it was making a net profit.
Commenting on the financing round, Rozen said, "With this significant new investment round, combined with the caliber of investors backing us, we are able to continue executing our strategy, building a world class global company that will bring value to investors and shape the industry as a market leader. With this new round we have taken Celeno to the next level and are able to further accelerate our growth and expansion in the market as well as focus on enhancing R&D efforts and further developing our disruptive solutions."
Red Dot managing partner Zvika Naggan, who has now joined Celeno’s Board of Directors, said, "Celeno has made the crucial transition from an innovative, disruptive start-up to a global player alongside some of the Wi-Fi semiconductor industry’s largest players and the solution of choice for many of the most important global service providers. The growth and worldwide market presence that Celeno has established over time is remarkable, and a testament to their approach and the quality of their products. Celeno’s track record speaks for itself and Red Dot is excited to join the company as it grows and establishes itself as a formidable player in this space."
Red Dot, founded early this year, is controlled by Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government company. The fund, managed by Yoram Oron, Nagan, and Yaniv Stern, four months ago led a financing round by Israeli e-commerce startup Global-e.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 7, 2016
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