UV announces $4 M to support Cloud4Wi’s international expansion
March 17th, 2014
London, 19th March 2014 – United Ventures, Italy’s largest technology- focused Venture Capitalist firm, today announced Series A funding of $4 million to support Cloud4Wi’s international expansion. Cloud4Wi, a provider of next generation managed Wi-Fi services has already enjoyed huge success in Italy with major telco players, system integrators and vendors having adopted the Cloud4Wi solution to address their customer needs.
Cloud4Wi’s cloud platform allows venues to monetize their provision of Wi-Fi services by leveraging the Cloud4Wi marketplace – the first marketplace of it’s kind in the industry. Benefits of the marketplace to venues are multiple – they can promote special offers to customers via the branded splash portal, provide easy-to-use applications to help customers enjoy their visits, utilise powerful marketing tools to retain and develop their customer bases, capture customer data via sophisticated analytics tools and spread their brand thanks to social Wi-Fi.
Moreover, with the Wi-Fi marketplace being open to third party developers, the potential for innovation and expansion of choice for clients is vast. Indeed, it is this marketplace feature that gives Cloud4Wi the edge in a very competitive market.
Firmly positioned as leaders in Italy and with a place on the prestigious 2013 Red Herring Top 100 Europe list, Cloud4Wi’s eyes are now looking at the globe, with a focus on North America. It is growth in North America, in particular, that United Ventures is supporting with $4 million in Series A investment. The funding will, in part, assist a strategic new San Francisco- based office and a growing team.
In terms of market size, the Wireless Broadcast Association recently forecasted growth to 55m hotspots in 2018 (over 100m including residential). They also predicted that diversity of venues would be a key trend over the next few years with stadiums and shopping malls being the main generators of demand growth. These findings clearly bode very well for the company.
“United Ventures are delighted to invest in such an innovative company with a strong management team and a real passion for global expansion. We’re very excited to see the company grow from strength to strength in the coming year,” said Massimilano Magrini, Co-founder and Managing Partner of United Ventures.
“Cloud4Wi’s cloud platform fulfils the emerging need of venues to monetize their Wi-Fi services and, as trends confirm, that is a global market with huge potential.” said Andrea Calcagno, CEO of Cloud4Wi. “The financial support and industry expertise of United Ventures will help us accelerate our grow in the international scenario more rapidly – and with the benefit of experience and relationships of a leading tech investor.”
