The series C growth investment is focused on accelerating Ubicquia’s small cell and smart grid product offerings, along with increasing its working capital to address expanded manufacturing and order volumes.
“This $30m in growth capital will allow Ubicquia to accelerate our solutions that are addressing critical needs of cities and utilities globally in the areas of energy savings, transportation optimisation, public safety and monitoring of critical infrastructure,” said Ian Aaron, CEO of Ubicquia.
Ubicquia said its smart city platforms plug into existing streetlights to provide critical services, including advanced light control and video artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise traffic management and enhance public safety.
Ubicquia’s communication platforms deliver public wi-fi, private LTE and small cell solutions that plug into a streetlight photocell socket, install in minutes and are barely seen from street level.
Meanwhile, Ubicquia claims its smart grid platforms are designed to help utilities ‘harden’ their utility pole and distribution transformer networks while delivering valuable real-time data for monitoring critical infrastructure.
Ubicquia is deployed in more than 100 cities and has expanded its global footprint with deployments in Mexico, Colombia and Chile. Earlier this year, the start-up acquired smart city platform CityIQ from GE Current with some 8,000 edge AI cameras deployed across the US and Canada to help enhance traffic optimisation and public safety.
“Ubicquia has exponentially expanded its reach and abilities and shown enviable aptitude in leveraging opportunities in major cities in need,” added Maggie Vo, managing general partner and chief investment officer, Fuel Venture Capital.
The investment in Ubicquia is the latest deal for Fuel Venture Capital. In Q1 the VC firm led two of the largest funding rounds in Florida thus far in 2020: a $25m seed raise by Boca Raton-based PredaSAR, and a $7.5m round by Miami micromobility start-up Bolt Mobility.
Ubicquia is actively involved in organisations, including the US Conference of Mayors Business Council, GSMA, Competitive Carrier Association, CBRS Alliance, and Illuminating Engineering Society to help drive efforts to make global smart connectivity a reality.
