Highlights:

  • Firecell, a 2021 startup, offers what it claims are more affordable and user-friendly private 5G installations for business and industrial buildings needing wireless access.
  • Operating in over 20 countries, the company has signed up 75 clients, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Energy, ID Logistics, Campus Schwarzwald, Team Henri Fabre, SNCF, Airbus, Thales, and Fives.

A private 5G connectivity provider, Firecell, raises USD 7.2 million in a seed round headed by Matterwave Ventures and Ventech for developing a range of 5G solutions to power industrial smart applications.

Bouygues Telecom Initiative and Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund also participated in the fundraising round.

Firecell, a 2021 startup, offers what it claims are more affordable and user-friendly private 5G installations for business and industrial buildings in the need of wireless access. According to the corporation, their solutions offer more reliable connectivity for expansive and intricate places, along with superior communication capabilities that surpass Wi-Fi. A straightforward 5G setup can expedite cost and efficiency returns.

Operating in over 20 countries, the company has signed up 75 clients, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Energy, ID Logistics, Campus Schwarzwald, Team Henri Fabre, SNCF, Airbus, Thales, and Fives.

With fewer than five access points, a complex or campus covering more than 30,000 square meters can be fully covered by 5G due to Firecell’s solution. Thus, less infrastructure is needed to set up campuses, warehouses, logistics centers, call centers, and other facilities rapidly and easily. According to the company, the platform’s natural communication encryption compatibility with contemporary industrial systems further enhances security.

Firecell’s Co-founder and Chief Executive, Claude Seyrat, said, “This fundraising will allow us to accelerate our deployment and offer industrial enterprises cutting-edge connectivity to meet their growing communication and data management needs.”

Even if industrial digitization is happening right now, only three percent of communications in French companies are wireless, according to the business. An increased degree of connectedness with machines and devices via telemetry through the Internet of Things has been made possible by the development and application of 5G, allowing any equipment to be instrumented for the so-called “industrial metaverse.” Customers can recreate their factories and warehouses in the cloud for digital twins by using data from their equipment and factories; however, for this to happen, they must first have mobile data networks that can transport the necessary information.

Some factories have started using internal drones, robots, and campus vehicles that are all autonomous. When delivering packages and finishing jobs, robots and autonomous delivery vehicles have less downtime and greater connectivity to the central network due to 5G’s higher capacity and increased reliability.

5G, the fifth generation of broadband cellular networks, is expected to offer up to 10 gigabits per second, ten times the bandwidth of 4G networks, reduced latency, and increased dependability. This puts it in a position to drive future mixed and virtual reality devices and the industrial metaverse, which can support factory simulations.

Silviu Apostu, Principal at Matterwave Ventures, stated, “In order to fulfill the promise of the industrial transformation, companies need secure, reliable, and high-performance wireless connectivity. In a short span of time, Firecell has built a compelling product and convinced demanding customers to deploy it in their production environments.”

Firecell stated that it would use the additional funds to offer new capabilities to its product line, such as geolocation and cyberattack protection, to assist more businesses in realizing the digital industrial, Internet of Things, and metaverse future. The company aims to introduce its product throughout Europe, specifically in Germany, where Firecell is setting up a subsidiary. In addition, Firecell plans to add roughly 15 new employees to strengthen its engineering, research, and sales departments.