After quietly launching operations on four continents, Aurora Insight is taking its data to the main stage.
The company, which provides radio spectrum data to wireless technology-enabled companies, on Tuesday announced the close of an $18 million funding round as it exits stealth mode.
The financing was led by Alsop Louie Partners and True Ventures, with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Tippet Venture Partners, Promus Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, ValueStream Ventures and Intellectus Partners.
Emerging technologies like smart cities and self-driving cars rely on wireless connectivity, and radio spectrum includes the airwaves that make those connections possible. Aurora says that spectrum has become one of the most valuable resources in the digital economy – with data traffic increasing 46 percent annually – and that its services allow wireless-centric operators and wireless-enabled technologies to stay ahead of new deployments, anticipate performance and expand connectivity.
"Our customers don't have the time or money to deploy fleets of trucks and spectrum analyzers to determine if their wireless solutions are going to work," co-founder and CEO Brian Mengwasser said in an email. "We enable more companies to design-to-reality and get more out of limited spectrum, which is part of everyone's technology stack now.”
Aurora uses an autonomous sensor network, powered by machine learning and digital signal processing, to continuously convert the full radio spectrum environment into a connectivity map.
"We've made it a map because so much of our world we like to understand by location," Mengwasser said. "And we have maps of other critical infrastructure like roads and buildings – now we have one for wireless."
The company, which has been delivering spectrum intelligence in several countries for its initial clients, plans to use the funding to scale deployment of its data-as-a-service offering to more locations. Its customer base includes companies building wireless infrastructure, like carriers and cell-tower companies, and tech companies that depend on wireless connections from IoT sensors, cars, drones, smart factories and the like.
"Our goal is to accelerate and to make it more efficient to leverage this critical resource," Mengwasser said. "Ultimately we see the biggest stakeholders as us, the consumers, being served by businesses trying to deliver novel 'smart' solutions."
Aurora currently has 16 employees – mostly in engineering and data science – he said, and expects to grow rapidly.
It isn't the only D.C.-area startup looking to manage a slice of wireless real estate. Last month, Federated Wireless raised $51 million in funding as it deploys a network carrying another type of wireless spectrum, called Citizens Band Radio Service.
