Closing soon: Indoor wireless done right
Cellium in talks with Rakuten, QMC and other global telecom leaders
- Next-generation indoor/outdoor communication chip, supporting cellular, 5G and IoT
- Working towards commercialization with Rakuten in Japan, QMC in Latin America, major global operators and system integrators
- Expecting orders in tens of millions of dollars from Q1 2023
- Early-mover 5G advantage; new chipset offers enhanced performance up to 10X faster than competing solutions at 25% of cost
- Global distributed antenna market $8.8B in 2020, forecast to grow at 9.5% CAGR to $15.3B by 2026
- Impressive team led by CEO Dror Jerushalmi, co-founder of Valens; COO Roy Kinamon, ex-head of Israel Design Center, STMicroelectronics (NASDAQ: STM); CFO Gil Bahat, ex-CFO Zeekit, acquired by Walmart
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Dear Josb,
The rollout of 5G cellular data, coupled with the growth of internet of things (IoT) sensors and autonomous indoor devices, is driving strong demand for in-building wireless coverage. At the same time, the higher frequencies used by 5G, and next-generation communications protocols make that coverage more difficult to provide.
OurCrowd is reinvesting in Cellium, an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that has designed a system on a chip (SoC) that offers 10X faster throughput at 25% of the cost of competing solutions. The details in this email are based on information received from, and verified solely by, the company.
Since OurCrowd first launched this opportunity earlier this year, the company reports the following significant developments:
Major partners: Cellium is working towards commercialization of its system with several operators and system integrators worldwide, including Rakuten in Japan and QMC in Latin America.
Expected revenue from 2023: The company expects orders worth tens of millions of dollars from Q1 2023.
Major potential customers: The company sees increased interest and demand for in-building wireless solutions for 5G networks. Cellium is being approached by a large number of potential customers, including cellular operators and large system providers and integrators from the US, Asia, Europe and Latin America. They recognize the problem of 5G signal penetration into buildings, and are looking for an effective, low-cost solution from Cellium.
Competitive advantage: 80-90% of Cellular 5G deployments are "non-stand-alone", meaning that in order to run the 5G network they must add 4G (LTE) network for control signals in parallel, to support the 5G main network. Only Cellium can combine the support of both 4G and 5G networks into one system using the single cable connecting the system devices (base to remote units).
Full system solution: Cellium offers not just a chipset to solve the in-building wireless problem, but also a full system solution. This new approach enables the company to serve a much larger number of customers, reduces time to market and dramatically increases its revenue forecast.
The Technology
Cellium's patented technology converts communications signals to a frequency that can be easily transmitted through existing copper or coaxial cable infrastructure, and then reconverted to the appropriate frequency and retransmitted by a low-cost remote unit. One Cellium base unit can serve multiple remote units providing coverage in different rooms or areas.
Cellium's hyper-converged product is future proof, compatible with any technology, cellular, WiFi, and multiple operators, in frequencies up to 7GHz.
The Market
As mobile network operators use 5G to push a mobile-first market strategy, and smart buildings equipped with IoT sensors proliferate, strong in-building wireless coverage will become a necessity. The global distributed antenna market was $8.8B in 2020 and is forecasted to grow at 9.5% CAGR to $15.3B by 2026.
The Team
Cellium has an impressive team led by CEO Dror Jerushalmi, who was co-founder and CEO of Valens, a leading fabless semiconductor company whose HDBaseT technology has been adopted as a standard for connectivity in the audio-video and automotive markets. COO Roy Kinamon was formerly the head of the Israel Design Center for STMicroelectronics (NASDAQ: STM). CFO Gil Bahat previously served as the CFO for Zeekit, acquired by Walmart.
This Round
Up to $12M round led by OurCrowd and Mivtach Shamir. Co-investors include GBZ Technologies. The proceeds from this round will provide funding until first sales, expected late 2022, while the company builds its production and sales infrastructure.
This deal is in the process of being extended to allow some late participation, and we expect it will be closing soon.
Meet the CEO
Watch an investor briefing with CEO Dror Jerushalmi and learn more about Cellium.
The Cellium Solution
Cellium's SoC is at the heart of the two parts of the system, the Cellium Base Unit and the Cellium Remote Unit. The Base Unit can take in multiple inputs - 3G/4G/5G, WiFi, IoT, etc. The signals are then multiplexed and converted to a frequency suitable for existing in-building copper or coax cables.
The cables are used to distribute the signal to Cellium Remote Units which reconvert them to the original frequencies and are then transmitted into the desired location. Cellium's solution offers many advantages over competing Distributed Small Cell solutions:
- No radio frequency planning
- No interference concerns
- No in-building handoffs
- No latency
- High performance
- Spectral efficiency
Next steps:
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