The U.S. chip giant has already invested in the company through its investment arm, but is now interested in buying the startup which develops a smart RAN automation and orchestration platform that can help accelerate deployment of 5G networks
Semiconductor powerhouse Qualcomm is in advanced negotiations to acquire Israeli startup Cellwize for $300 million, Calcalist has learned.
Qualcomm invested in Cellwize through its investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures, in its most recent funding round, a $32 million Series B in November 2020. Qualcomm has acquired several Israeli companies in the past, including paying $300 million for Wilocity in 2014 and $45 million for CSR Israel’s imaging unit.
Cellwize has raised $56 million to date. Its investors include Intel Capital, Samsung Next, Verizon Ventures, DTCP, Viola Ventures, Vintage, GreenApple, and Sonae IM. The company boasts clients of the likes of Verizon, Telefonica, Nextel, Movistar, and Bell. According to the company, it is active in 16 countries with its technology in use in three million cell sites and over 800 million subscribers being connected through Cellwize.
Cellwize CEO Ofir Zemer. Photo: Courtesy
Cellwize’s platform, named CHIME, provides cloudified and AI-driven RAN automation and orchestration that accelerates 5G network deployment. For the last few years, telecom companies around the world have raced to be first in comprehensive 5G rollouts, vowing faster speeds and increased bandwidth, better customer experience to support consumers, as well as advanced low latency/high bandwidth new M2M use cases. However, managing and controlling a multi-vendor, cross-technology network is several-fold more challenging than the legacy 2/3/4G networks.
Cellwize has built an AI-powered RAN automation platform that automates the deployment, design, management, and optimization of 5G networks, while seamlessly managing the underlying legacy networks. The company's technology ingests raw data from the RAN and external sources such as crowdsourcing and geolocation, abstracts it, and makes it available to any application and solution through open APIs. This enables a unified application layer across all vendors, which connects network applications and algorithms to any OSS or vendor in a guarded and controlled way, allowing mobile network operators to accelerate their 5G businesses, and enhances RAN automation across the network, while also reducing operating costs and advanced time to market of 5G services.