“Mini-RAN” startup SpiderCloud Wireless – formed last year by management hailing from companies such as Qualcomm, Cisco, Juniper and Flarion – has attracted US$25 million in a second round of funding. The latest cash injection – on top of an earlier US$15 million round – was led by Opus Capital along with new investment from Shasta Ventures and existing Series A investors Charles River Ventures and Matrix Partners. “We are the only mobile network infrastructure company in the US to have raised US$40 million in the last year to solve the capacity problem,” Ronny Haraldsvik, VP of marketing, told Mobile Business Briefing (MBB).

The company is currently testing its kit with unnamed European operators, aiming to offer them a solution that improves indoor coverage for enterprises, keeping traffic within SpiderCloud’s “mini-RAN” (or E-RAN, Enterprise-Radio Access Network, to give the product its official name) and removed from the operator’s core network. SpiderCloud claims to have developed in-building equipment that is inexpensive enough for small companies to deploy, and in a matter of days rather than weeks or months. SpiderCloud will sell the technology to mobile operators and let them offer it in a service bundle to businesses, often in exchange for taking over a greater share of the enterprise’s mobile accounts. Haraldsvik said the startup may also partner with other network vendors on its go-to-market strategy: “Our model will continue to be to sell direct to operators, but there are infrastructure partners on the enterprise side who may want to branch out. In 2010 you will see other vendors getting into this space.” Giving credibility to the startup’s claims, SpiderCloud was flagged in a recent report by Signals Research Group as a company offering a solution to the problem of smartphone signalling traffic on 3G networks (another solution being the use of femtocells). “The network capacity challenge will continue as ever more smart devices are used,” explained Haraldsvik. “Signalling is a drag on the network.” SpiderCloud also today announced the appointment of Behrooz Parsay as its new senior VP of engineering and operations.