Ember Corporation, provider of ZigBee wireless networking technology, announced it closed an additional $8 million in funding from its primary venture capital investors and strategic partners.
Polaris Venture Partners, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures, WestLB Mellon Asset Management (formerly West AM) and strategic partners such as Chevron Technology Ventures and Stata Venture Partners participated in the round.
The new round, combined with existing investments from STMicroelectronics, Hitachi
Corporation and MIT, bring the total capital Ember has raised to $89 million.
The market for 802.15.4/ZigBee devices is expected to reach as high as 292 million units in 2012, up from about 7 million units in 2007, according to research firm In-Stat.
As part of the recently enacted stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama, more than $49 billion was allocated to transform the nation's energy system, and more than $17 billion of that will be aimed at electric grid infrastructure upgrades.