The Bill Gates-backed startup Pivotal Commware raised $50 million for C round all led by an associate of Tracker Capital Management and Devonshire Investors, a company related to Fidelity Investments. Pivotal has plenty of excitement surrounding its business with a particular interest in its ability to create products based on Holographic Beamforming technology. These products can be used by mobile network operators to help improve the transmission of 5G high-band (mmWave) spectrum in both mobile and fixed wireless.
This is an important feature that we have seen others such as Samsung work on because of the need to transmit 5G mmWave spectrum onto vehicles moving at great speeds. As great as mmWave will be for the future of wireless communication, it may have plenty of features but there are also many obstacles. For starters, it doesn’t travel very far, even for 5G signal which has a problem traveling no matter which band of spectrum. mmWave struggles so much that it can’t penetrate walls. Next is the fact that because of this obstacle, mmWave requires a lot of infrastructure to keep signals going which is a problem this early in 5G’s life cycle. And finally, the reason Samsung is working on beamforming solutions is due to the difficulties in receiving signals while moving at high speeds such as in an automobile or an aircraft. Pivotal is looking to become a global player in this arena with high hopes that the $50 million raised will help them do just that. “This capital will allow Pivotal to become a significant 5G telecom infrastructure provider on a global stage,” said Pivotal’s COO Chris Brandon.
Pivotal continues to move forward and has started providing mmWave solutions for 5G since its formation including for major brands such as Verizon. While the company is currently focused on high-capacity, high-speed solutions in the 28 GHz, 39 GHz, and soon-to-be 24 GHz realms, Pivotal is also planning to expand into Band n53, C-band, CBRS, and others. Speaking on the matter, Pivotal CEO Brian Deutsch commented, “You’ll start to see us in some of these up-and-coming frequency bands because beamforming matters there also.”
Band n53 is a band from Globalstar, a company that shares an investor with Pivotal and is supported by Qualcomm 5G X65 modem. There is an incredible ecosystem being created among Pivotal and others to bring beamforming to life not only in mmWave but throughout all spectrum bands. Powerful investments and a bright future are the backbones of Pivotal with the raising of these funds feeling like only the beginning.
Source: Fierce Wireless