Patent-mining expert Intellectual Ventures has spun off a new company that is set to produce, by 2015, a new design of satellite Earth antennas for enterprise and consumer mobile broadband applications.
Bellevue, Wash.-based Intellectual Ventures has closed a $12 million round of financing with support from Liberty Global, Lux Capital and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, among others.
The new company, called Kymeta and based in Redmond, Wash., will commercialize its mTenna self-pointing antennas using Intellectual Ventures’ Metamaterials Surface Antenna Technology.
Intellectual Ventures said its technology will be able to “steer a radio signal toward a satellite,” bringing higher efficiency to mobile broadband applications while offering an antenna structure that is “thinner, lighter, more efficient and less expensive” than traditional antennas.
“Kymeta’s ‘broadband anywhere’ product focus will transform a market that is already poised for incredible growth,” said Josh Wolfe, co-founder and managing partner of Lux Capital.
