TCV funding allows continual expansion in 4G LTE leadership, NetCloud platform, SDN & NFV technologies
Cradlepoint has come a long way from our founding in 2006. Originally built to develop 3G mobile hotspots for the consumer market and road warriors, Cradlepoint pivoted its business in 2011 to become the first to bring the utility, flexibility and efficiency of 4G LTE to the enterprise to meet the evolving demand for more agile and extensible WANs. Since our pivot, Cradlepoint has become essential WAN infrastructure for over 15,000 enterprise customers that rely on our 4G LTE network solutions for branch primary and failover connections, in-vehicle networks and M2M/IoT connectivity. Thanks to the trust placed on us by our customers and channel and mobile operator partners, we’ve experienced more than 40 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years.
We are grateful for our success to date, but the journey is just beginning. The implications of Digital Transformation on the enterprise WAN is proving to be – well, transformational. As enterprises continue down the path of connecting people, places and things everywhere, the demand for fast and reliable 4G LTE will continue to proliferate. Just around the corner lies 5G, which will usher-in new fixed and mobile wireless solutions that deliver gigabit-per-second performance with less than one millisecond of latency and a long battery life for IoT. As with 4G LTE, Cradlepoint intends to be the “first to 5G” for enterprise customers.
This all brings me to today’s news. I’m proud to announce that we’ve raised $89 million in Series C funding from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a premier growth-stage investor that has played a role in shaping numerous innovative and industry-leading companies including, Netflix, GoDaddy and Splunk. Joining us on this journey as part of Cradlepoint’s board are Ted Coons, General Partner at TCV, and Doug Gilstrap, TCV Venture Partner. TCV has been following the Cradlepoint story for a number of years before investing, and I think they captured our culture well when they said, “The best due diligence is watching a company do what they say they are going to do.” And we have.
This latest round of funding will allow us to continue to expand our leadership in 4G LTE networking and accelerate investments in Cradlepoint NetCloud, our software and services platform that leverages cloud, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies. And of course, we are keeping the pedal to the metal in developing support for latest 4G LTE radios and specifications, which can deliver up to 600 Mbps today and will pave the way to 5G over the next couple of years.
Our future goals go hand-in-hand with our commitment to servicing our 15,000 customers, 50 percent of which are Fortune 100, and providing them with superior products and customer service that we’re recognized for today. Each and every employee at Cradlepoint understands that they play a role in making our customers successful. And our goal will always be to have our customers feel they received more value than the price they paid.
It’s evident that traditional WANs are falling short from a connectivity, security and cost perspective. Connected Enterprises require a next-generation WAN solution that is software-defined, cloud-agile and wirelessly-pervasive. And as the first to market with an LTE router, we are prepared to do it again as we meet the demand through innovations in 5G connectivity. With this new round of funding and the partnership with TCV, Cradlepoint is in an even better position to help our customers navigate the path to digital transformation, as the acceleration of cloud, mobile and IoT give rise to the Connected Enterprise.