• Celona is one of the specialist stars of the private networks tech sector
• It has developed hardware and software for enterprise 4G/5G 
• It’s hoping to ride the CBRS wave in the US
• It has raised $60 million to fuel international growth and further R&D

Private wireless networks specialist vendor Celona has just raised a $60 million Series C round of funding led by DigitalBridge Ventures, taking its total funding so far to $100 million.

The company has focused on the development of hardware (access points, antennas) for indoor and outdoor locations and supporting cloud-native, AI-enabled management software for private 4G and 5G networks with the aim of making the technology easy to integrate with existing enterprise IT systems.

Celona was identified as one of the market leaders in the private network sector Competitive Leaderboard report put together by Juniper Research late last year, and is looking to capitalize on the growing demand for private networks in markets where spectrum has been specifically assigned, for example in the US with the award of CBRS licenses. And it has a strong partner for that particular push in the form of Verizon, which is integrating Celona 5G LAN technology with its On Site 4G/LTE and 5G portfolio of services. 

Now the company has the chance to develop further and take its solution into international markets following its $60 million Series C funding round, which was backed by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, NTTVC, Qualcomm Ventures and Cervin Ventures, as well as DigitalBridge Ventures. (See Celona Closes Oversubscribed $60 Million Series C Funding Round.)

“Celona has brought a solution to the private 5G market that we believe will have a transformative impact on the entire industry,” said Marc Ganzi, president and CEO of DigitalBridge. 

“We will be leveraging DigitalBridge’s leadership and resources in digital infrastructure to expand our ventures platform by investing in exciting, entrepreneurial businesses like Celona. We are thrilled to partner with Celona for DigitalBridge’s inaugural venture investment, and we see tremendous potential for the business’ continued growth and leadership in the private cellular space,” added Ganzi.

The investors will surely have noted the recent private networks sector forecast from IDC, which put the expected value of the market at $8 billion by 2026, up from $1.7 billion in 2021. (See Private networks sector set for stellar growth, to hit $8 billion by 2026: IDC.)

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV