The South West Investment Fund awards £200 million to smaller businesses in the area to help promote and drive sustainable economic growth and support innovative, pioneering businesses across the region.
Blu Wireless, located in the centre of Bristol, is a fast-growing wireless business, with ambitions that align with the South West Investment Fund and Maven. Both organisations have been in talks for over six months about the opportunity to invest in the business.
Commenting Alexander Sleigh, Maven Investment Director, said, “Blu Wireless has developed a highly defensible and scalable mmWave solution which has the potential to materially improve connectivity on high-speed rail transportation. This new investment will enable the company to further commercialise its market leading technology including through the creation of new high quality engineering jobs in the Bristol region. We are pleased to have partnered, through the South West Investment Fund, and we look forward to supporting the business over this next phase of growth.”
The patented Blu Wireless mmWave wireless solution for rail networks provides high bandwidth and low latency connectivity from trackside to train. It delivers gigabit data throughput, increased security and cost-effective deployment, utilising the unlicensed frequency band at 57-71 GHz.
The gigabit communications network is already being deployed successfully in the high-speed transport market in the US with the CALTRAIN commuter rail line running from San Francisco to San Jose through the heart of the Silicon Valley. In the UK, the technology is being rolled out on the busy South Western Railway (SWR).
“Having the South West Investment Fund, through Maven, invest in Blu Wireless is fantastic for the business and the area and underlines the progress the company has made over the last 24 months,” said Alan Jones, CEO of Blu Wireless.
The investment will be used to allow Blu Wireless to serve its growing international customer base and deliver commercial mmWave deployments worldwide. It will also fuel commercialisation of mmWave technology in the rail sector and pave the way for the ‘gigabit train’ in the UK and globally.
