PureLiFi, a spin-out of Edinburgh University developing a new networking system, has secured £1.5m ($2.27m) in the first of two funding announcements the UK-based firm expects to make this year.
The round was led by angel group London and Scottish Investment Partners, with participation from Scottish Investment Bank and Old College Capital, the venture arm of Edinburgh University.
PureLiFi, which was named one of Global University Venturing’s spin-outs to watch in 2015 in our Christmas list, has said that they expect to make another funding announcement in the second half of the year.
The company is developing a wireless communication technology based on visible light communication that provides networking capabilities similar to WiFi but with greater bandwidth capacity. The LiFi industry is expected to grow to $9bn by 2020 alongside the growth of the Internet of Things, and the recent funding round values the Edinburgh company at £14m.
Harald Haas, chief scientific officer and co-founder of PureLiFi, said: “LiFi is increasingly viewed as a transformative technology that can change the way we use the mobile internet as part of future 5G cellular networks and at the same time be an enabler of the emerging Internet of Things.”
