Telensa, a start-up based in Cambridge, UK, raised US$18 million in venture funding for its smart city solutions incorporating low power wide area (LPWA) wireless technology.
Telensa makes wireless smart city control applications, a smart streetlight solution that company says has been deployed by over 50 city and regional networks in 8 countries for a total footprint of over 1 million streetlights. The streetlights use LPWA Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) radio system, which combines low-cost, long range, long battery life and 2-way communication for massive numbers of devices.
Telensa cites strong demand growth in three areas:
- The worldwide rollout of energy-efficient LED street lights. Connecting these lights is becoming mandatory as it unlocks further energy savings, reduces maintenance costs and enables flexible lifetime control of local lighting levels.
- Streetlights are increasingly being seen as the ideal low-cost hub for smart city sensor applications, such as weather and pollution monitoring.
- New Smart City applications that connect to the city’s UNB network. The company’s smart parking solution, for example, already includes some of the world’s largest deployments such as Moscow and Shenzhen.
The funding includes equity investment from Environmental Technologies Fund and debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank.
“The smart city controls market is awash with pilot applications looking for a business case, LPWA networks waiting for a critical mass of devices, and vendors hoping for a path to profit,” said Will Gibson, CEO Telensa. “We’re different. Our networks are proven at commercial scale and our applications are sold on a sustainable business case. This investment is recognition of Telensa’s success and enables us to expand to meet the growing demand for our solutions.”