Tendril Secures $5.25 Million in Venture Funding; Affirms Position as the Leading Network Operations Platform Company for Wireless Sensor and Control
9 August 2006
Tendril (http://www.tendrilinc.com) announced today that the company has secured $5.25 million in Series B funding to continue its growth as the leading provider of network operations platform software for developing and deploying Wireless Sensor and Control Networks (WSCN). Tendril's groundbreaking software is the first to support rapid, successful deployments of wireless sensor network technology, which is being used in a broad range of industries to integrate things in the physical world with existing computing systems. Vista Ventures, a Boulder, Colorado venture capital firm, led the round and was joined by existing institutional investors Access Venture Partners, Appian Ventures and angel investors.
"Vista embraced the opportunity to lead this investment round because Tendril is first to market with software that meets a critical need in the large and growing low-power wireless network market," said Catharine Merigold, Managing Partner at Vista. "Combined with the strength of the management team and their partnerships in the market, Tendril is clearly best-in-class -- which is a key criterion we look for when we invest in and grow great companies. We look forward to working closely with Tendril to pursue this significant emerging market."
Tendril's distributed platform allows organizations to fully leverage the power of WSCN implementations that integrate different types of low-power sensors/actuators with networked computing systems. Tendril's technology accomplishes this by providing an integrated enterprise-side and node-side programming interface, along with associated network bridging software, for monitoring, managing, and integrating wireless sensor and control networks. Tendril's approach allows OEMs to integrate wireless networking capabilities into their products in less than a week and provides system integrators with the ability to quickly add well-monitored WSCN to deployments in the field.
"With this funding, Tendril will aggressively pursue its sales and marketing objectives, which include expanding its customer base in key markets where WSCN deployments are accelerating, such as the industrial control and building automation fields," said Tim Enwall, Founder, Chairman and COO of Tendril. "Tendril's software is critical to any deployment strategy for these networks, and this funding is a validation of the great traction Tendril has achieved in a short time."
In a separate news release today, Tendril is also announcing that industry pioneer Adrian Tuck has joined Tendril as the company's CEO. Prior to becoming Tendril's CEO, Tuck was a member of Ember Corporation's executive team, and he is one of the most widely respected figures in the wireless sensor and control network industry.
"There is a sizable market opportunity for Tendril's software because it addresses the most significant challenges of building and deploying low-power wireless sensor and control networks -- including monitoring and managing network performance, diagnostics, security, power, network commissioning and upward integration," said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril. "Tendril's software is a first-of-its-kind solution for companies at the forefront of deploying these networks. This funding allows Tendril to translate its first-to-market position into a market leader position."
To read the full news release about Adrian Tuck joining Tendril, visit http://www.tendrilinc.com.
About Tendril
Tendril is at the forefront of the "Internet of Things" -- the next big stage of computing -- which allows organizations to interact with the physical world in areas where computing has previously been cost-prohibitive. To achieve its vision, Tendril is leading the expansion of the Wireless Sensor and Control Networks category by developing a network operations platform for product OEMs and Integrators to integrate low-power wireless into their products and services in days, not months. This groundbreaking technology includes the first system software product of its kind to sit on top of a variety of low-power wireless sensor and control networks -- including ZigBee, 802.15.4 and proprietary 802.15.4-based networks -- offering a distributed platform for monitoring, managing and integrating previously non-computerized activities related to buildings, factories, cities, crops, homes and other objects in the physical world. For more information about Tendril, visit http://www.tendrilinc.com.
About Vista Ventures
Vista Ventures focuses on investments in early and growth-stage IT, communications, media and data services, and nanotechnology companies that have the potential to become market leaders. With offices in Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado, the firm's emphasis is on companies located in the Rocky Mountain region. Vista's investment approach focuses on being early investors and partnering with management teams to build companies that create new markets and change industries. For more information, visit http://www.vistavc.com.
About Access Venture Partners
Access Venture Partners is a seed and early-stage venture capital fund. The Fund invests between $250,000 and $2,000,000 in mid-continent technology companies with hyper-growth potential. The firm has offices in Austin, Denver and Silicon Valley, three of the most active technology markets in the country. Access Venture Partners is backed by large public pension plans, family offices, foundations, successful entrepreneurs and corporate executives. For more information, visit http://www.accessventurepartners.com.
About Appian Ventures
Appian invests in software and technologies that improve business performance through the application and management of network connectivity -- Applied Connectivity. In an increasingly decentralized and distributed commercial environment, Applied Connectivity represents the fastest-growing segments of the IT industry. With an investment philosophy best summed up as "Connect. Sharpen. Succeed." Appian pursues business opportunities with a whole-company approach that benefits the entrepreneur as much as it does Appian. The firm's investment emphasis is on seed and early-stage technology companies located in the Western U.S., but the firm also considers growth and late stage companies. For more information, visit http://www.appianvc.com.
Source: prnewswire
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