On-Ramp Wireless Expands Series C Funding to $31M; Includes Funds from Strategic Investors Enbridge and Energy Technology Ventures
Investments from strategic investors and Third Wave Ventures will be used to further commercialize solutions and expand into new markets
SAN DIEGO – July 17, 2013 – On-Ramp Wireless, developer of wireless solutions for energy automation and M2M communications, announced it has secured an additional $15 million in its Series C funding round from new investor Enbridge, a leader in the safe and reliable delivery of energy in North America, and existing investors Third Wave Ventures and Energy Technology Ventures – a GE Ventures, NRG Energy, ConocoPhillips joint venture. This brings the total raised in the Series C round to $31 million. The funds will be used to further commercialize the company’s Smart Grid and Digital Oil Field solutions, in addition to opening new markets that want to leverage On-Ramp Wireless’ solutions to connect their corporate assets regardless of where they are located.
“On-Ramp Wireless will use the latest round of financing to continue to expand our large ecosystem of application partners in our key energy markets and extend into new adjacent verticals through our strategic partner program. We are seeing significant growth opportunities from enterprises that want to monitor and manage their hardest to reach assets, irrespective of location,” said Kevin Hell, president and CEO, On-Ramp Wireless. “Our technology can easily connect assets that have previously been unreachable, from oil and gas pipelines spanning hundreds of miles of harsh terrain to electrical transmission and distribution assets, both above and below ground. The Internet of Things is no longer just a vision for our customers; working together, we’ve made it a reality in their day-to-day operations, and their improved financial and operational performance, energy efficiency, and safety proves it.”
On-Ramp’s wireless networking technology is the only solution that can scale from dense urban to vast rural settings, above or below ground, delivering electrical utilities an immediate return on investment. By example, San Diego Gas & Electric was able to considerably reduce outage down times by pinpointing the exact location of a fault, as well as accurately predicting future service disruptions by leveraging On-Ramp’s industry leading solution for distribution monitoring and automation. Additionally, investor GE Ventures is also a strategic sales and integration partner. GE has embedded On-Ramp’s Total Reach technology in their Grid IQ AMI P2MP solution to support Grid Modernization applications. On-Ramp’s solutions scale well beyond electrical utility service with water and natural gas offerings slated for release next year.
To date On-Ramp’s fastest growing global sector has been Oil & Gas, providing business critical wireless solutions focused on production and delivery applications for many of the world’s leading energy exploration companies. New investor Enbridge plans to utilize On-Ramp’s wireless platform for long range monitoring of its distributed asset base helping to drive operational efficiencies and deliver actionable information regarding pipeline integrity.
“On-Ramp’s technology addresses a current and future need for our operations, enabling us to better connect with and monitor assets, such as transmission pipelines, in a more economical and reliable manner than conventional wireless technologies currently allow,” said Chuck Szmurlo, vice president, Alternative and Emerging Technology, Enbridge. “By automating the monitoring of these assets we are able to improve operational efficiencies and know, within seconds, valuable information that can help us reduce risk and save costs versus manual inspection processes.”
About On-Ramp Wireless
On-Ramp Wireless has developed the first wireless system purpose-built to efficiently connect billions of hard-to-reach devices in metro scale and other challenging environments. The On-Ramp Wireless Network enables low-power monitoring and control applications within Smart Grid, oil and gas operations, water efficiency, industrial sensing, and location tracking. For more information, visit www.onrampwireless.com or follow us on Twitter @onrampwireless.
###