Estonian family office Amalfi invested in Finnish IoT company Wirepas

Tallinn-based family office Amalfi invested in Finnish IoT company Wirepas. A $22M round was led by London-based VC Highland Europe. Other investors were US-based VC IQT and existing investors, such as British investment firm ETF Partners, the Netherlands-based KPN Ventures, German Vito Ventures, and a business angel from Finland Vesa Laisi.

Founded in 2010 by Mikko Kohvakka, Wirepas designed a wireless software technology for connecting IoT devices. The company uses algorithms and a decentralized mesh technology to connect as many as 16M networks, and each one has 4Bln devices at a time. Each device on a Wirepas network acts as an access point for the next and can be a router at any time. It can send and receive data in the network. 

By making small hops between devices rather than returning signals to a far-away central hub, Wirepas’ networks use minimal amounts of the wireless spectrum without sacrificing results. It leads to the network's range extension, cost cuts, and energy needed to manage such networks. If one sensor goes down, Wirepas reroutes the data without interruption, and the network autonomously reconfigures itself.

Wirepas works in Australia, Germany, Finland, France, India, and the US. The company has more than 160 partners. The company connects more than 7M devices via its technology. The startup will use the investment to continue scaling on the global markets.

Founded in 1994 by Heldur Meerits, Amalfi invests in early-stage companies directly and indirectly through VC funds. The firm has more than 20 direct investments, mostly seed and series-A. Amalfi’s portfolio includes Tartu-based biotech Gearbox Biosciences, Estonian developer of supercapacitors (fast-charging batteries) Skeleton Technologies, and US-based hardware and software Commsignia. The initial ticket starts from €100K. The company's partner is the founder of the Estonian language learning application Lingvist Ott Jalakas.