Base station startup lands $8 million in funding

WAYNE, N.J. — AirWalk Communications has landed an additional $8 million in funding, allowing the Richardson, Texas-based startup to double its staff and ramp up production and distribution of its micro CDMA base station designs

Using Qualcomm chipsets, AirWalk has been crafting microcell and picocell base stations for cdma2000 1x, cdma2000 1xEvDo, and cdma2000 1xEvDv applications. Using an initial $3 million obtained to launch the company, AirWalk has developed a prototype of its cdma2000 base station and has landed several deals with carriers, most recently in Japan.

But, to make the leap forward, the company needed to ramp its production and distribution efforts. Through the additional $8 million, AirWalk CEO Serge Pequeux will double its staff to 44 employees and begin prepping for production. "Now we can take the product to market," Pequeux added.

The additional funding also allows AirWalk to prep for future developments. Currently, AirWalk is planning to support 1xEvDo in its next product/ However, due to a slow ramp up in EvDo adoption, the company is considering a jump right to 1x EvDv, Pequeux said.

Airwalk's financing round, which closed in October, was lead by TLVentures and Korean Global IT Fund.