Telefónica Makes Strategic Investment in Quantenna

Telefónica Digital through its Venture Capital arm joins other leading VCs including Sequoia Capital, Venrock, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, DAG Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, and Grazia Equity

LONDON & FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Telefónica today announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with Quantenna Communications, a leader in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi networking for whole home entertainment. The partnership sees Telefónica making a strategic equity investment in Quantenna which gives it access to the latest Quantenna technology for the deployment of high performance video services to the home.

“This strategic partnership and funding will enable us to expand our product offering for carrier-grade wireless IPTV services globally, as we continue to strengthen our industry-leading, 4x4 MIMO technology leadership position”

New services with high interactivity, low latency and huge bandwidth demands (such as high definition video), plus the increasing proliferation of connected devices in the home (many of those mobile) challenge today’s network technologies. As network operators start to roll out fibre services to customers’ homes, capable of delivering speeds of up to 100 Mbps, there is a looming bottleneck on the limited capabilities of current wireless technologies.

Quantenna has the networking expertise to bridge this capability gap and allow high quality video to be deployed wirelessly to multiple devices around the home. Quantenna’s family of Full-11n™ 5GHz chipsets uses the company’s cost-optimized, third-generation 4x4 MIMO technology to deliver up to 600 Mbps of bandwidth. The chipsets enable manufacturers to build products for delivering IPTV and other video streaming and data distribution services throughout the home over an ultra-reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi connection.

“Investing in up-and-coming technology companies is a core part of the Telefónica Digital strategy as we look to build our capabilities in order to succeed in the digital space,” said Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica Digital. “Quantenna’s technology will be a core component of our growth strategy for IPTV deployments in Europe and Latin America.”

Enrique Blanco, Chief Technology Officer at Telefónica, added, “Quantenna is a highly innovative company that has identified the looming capability gap between fixed and wireless networks and developed the solution to bridge it. Access to their technology will enable Telefónica to continue to meet the future home networking needs of our customers across our operating businesses.”

“This strategic partnership and funding will enable us to expand our product offering for carrier-grade wireless IPTV services globally, as we continue to strengthen our industry-leading, 4x4 MIMO technology leadership position,” said Sam Heidari, chief executive officer for Quantenna.

The investment in Quantenna has been led by Telefónica Ventures, a division of Telefónica Digital, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, Madrid and Israel.

Telefónica Digital has been formed to lead Telefónica’s growth strategy in the new digital world. Through a combination of research and development, partnership, investment and acquisition it will bring innovative products and services to market that allow it to drive continued growth in the core telecommunications market, as well as taking a leading role in new digital services such as entertainment, financial services, M2M, cloud computing and eHealth.

About Telefónica Digital

Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. Telefónica Digital will deliver these innovative products and services to Telefónica’s 295 million customers as well as leveraging the power of the internet to enter new markets. Telefónica Digital has 100% ownership of Jajah, Terra, Tuenti and giffgaff. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paolo, Madrid, Barcelona and Tel Aviv.

About Quantenna Communications, Inc.

Quantenna Communications, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company developing standards-based 802.11n MIMO chipsets that deliver the highest levels of performance, speed and reliability for wireless networks and devices. Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., Quantenna has assembled a management and engineering team with a long track record of start-up success, and is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, Venrock, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, DAG Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, and Grazia Equity. For additional information, please visit www.quantenna.com.