TechConnect: Federated Wireless Raises $72M in Series D to expand 5G
May 19, 2022 | By Adam Henry
This month, Arlington Economic Development is celebrating business appreciation month by meeting with dozens of Arlington-based companies to thank them for their investment in the community and connect them with resources through AED and its partner organizations. TechConnect is highlighting one of the companies visited during the month, Federated Wireless. Founded in 2012, Federated Wireless has long led the industry in development of shared spectrum Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) capabilities. As the first to market with a Spectrum Access System (“SAS”), Federated Wireless is the nationwide leader in enabling, commercializing, and driving adoption of shared spectrum and private wireless technologies. With more than 350 customers and over 85,000 connected devices across the United States and territories, the company serves a customer base spanning defense, government, manufacturing, telecommunications, utilities, real estate, and education. In February 2022, the company announced it raised $58 million in Series D funding to expand leadership in 5G wireless, and this month the company announced an additional $14 million in Series D funding to bring its total Series D raise to $72 million.
AED caught up with Kurt Schaubach, Chief Technology Officer of Federated Wireless, to discuss its recent Series D raise, the company’s growth in the next 12-24 months, and why they chose Arlington for its headquarters location.
Arlington Economic Development enjoyed connecting with your team during business appreciation month and is excited about the recent announcements for its Series D raise. Can you tell us more about your plans with this raise as the company accelerates its growth in the private 5G wireless market?
Kurt: We continue to see interest in deploying private 5G wireless networks across multiple use cased both in the public and private sectors. From military bases to school districts, network administrators and other key stakeholders are seeing the immense value of bringing a private 5G network to their organization. Private 5G wireless networks bring increased speed, lower latency, and personalized control and security to organizations - powering connectivity at levels that have yet to be previously realized. This type of connectivity makes Smart Factories, Smart Hospitals, and Smart Campuses a reality. Our goal is to continue to evangelize the benefits of this technology and rapidly deploy networks so interested organizations can see the benefits firsthand.
Recently, we announced a private 5G wireless network deployment with our partners Intel and Blue White Robotics. This deployment enables autonomous vehicles which maintain food integrity across farms, wineries, and other agricultural hubs. Currently, there are challenges with labor shortages and costs and automated vehicles are an important innovation to ensure that food and crop production schedules stay on plan. Our Series D fundraise will allow us to continue to power important innovations across industries and solve for connectivity challenges that numerous businesses and organizations are facing today.
As Federated Wireless accelerates its growth, how do you see the company expanding in operational and employee growth over the next 12-24 months?
Kurt: It is an exciting time to be an employee at Federated Wireless! This year alone we’ve surpassed 100,000 devices on our Spectrum Access System (SAS), entered into new commercial markets and partnerships with key hyperscalers, and expanded the scalability and reliability of our cloud-based software platform.
Our first area of operational growth will be the extension of our shared spectrum technology into a new spectrum band. Currently, our technology coordinates devices in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. Following our success in CBRS, we’ve filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) service vendor. Once approved, we will be able to implement an AFC that will coordinate high power, outdoor WiFi devices in the 6GHz spectrum band. We’ve already announced a partnership with Aruba, an HPE company to deliver these services worldwide. This partnership is our first entry into the Wi-Fi space. Our AFC will allow companies to take advantage of the capabilities of Wi-Fi 6E.
Additionally, we continue to see success with our Public Sector solutions. We demoed our Marine Corps Logistics Base 5G testbed for leading government and military figures last June at our Arlington headquarters. Since those demonstrations, we’ve had many opportunities come in to bring our testbed technology to other military bases and government agencies. At the state and local level, we’ve built upon the success of our shared spectrum deployment in McAllen, TX to bring optimized networks to other school districts across the United States. Our deployed networks help every day to eliminate connectivity challenges that many students face and close the digital divide.
In standing up new pillars of our business, there will of course be a wave of new hiring to complete. Our Talent team is the best in the business at finding and retaining the best and brightest individuals – which helps us usher in new innovative ideas and meet our customer delivery goals.
There are many hubs for innovation that Federated Wireless could choose from to locate in the United States. What were the main decision drivers for the company to choose to headquarter in Arlington?
Kurt: At its core, CBRS shared spectrum technology reallocates unused Department of Defense (DoD) spectrum to commercial entities. When the DoD decides to use their spectrum, we must give them priority and our system reallocates commercial users to other areas within the spectrum band. As we built our platform, it was important for us to be in close proximity to our government and regulatory partners. We were breaking the mold and this type of innovation takes communication to make sure everything is working seamlessly and effectively.
As our product offerings have increased and our partnerships evolved, our location in Arlington has opened doors for members of our team to be sought after thought leaders and ecosystem builders. We are the shared spectrum experts and are asked to speak at many DC-area conferences, tv/radio programs, and government meetings. Our federal business has grown quickly because we have the leading research institutions and contracting partners at our doorstep. Innovation happens in Arlington because collaboration is so easy and accessible.
About this Profile Series
Arlington's startup ecosystem has been rapidly expanding over the past five years and is quickly becoming recognized as an established innovation hub in the United States. Since 2015, Arlington-based companies have raised over $1.4 billion in venture capital across 144 deals covering several industries, including software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, big data, digital media, and more. AED launched its monthly TechConnect Profiles to highlight and profile companies in our technology startup ecosystem.