Spain's Fon nabs $14M from Qualcomm Ventures to boost Wi-Fi sharing

By VCPOST Staff Reporter

Jan 20, 2014 08:51 PM EST

Spanish Wi-Fi sharing device manufacturer Fon has secured $14 million from Qualcomm Ventures, a maker of chips for broadband wireless communications, according to VentureBeat.

The Spanish company will use the new capital to develop a new device that allows users to share not only music but also their broadband signals, according to Recode. In addition, Fon has partnered with Facebook so users can share their Wi-Fi with their Facebook friends when they meet in real life, the report detailed.

Fon's flagship product is a $49 hotspot device called Fonera. The product shares a user's bandwith with co-users of Fon. In return, the user gets to use bandwidth shared with oher Fonera routers free of charge. A new version of Fonera is currently available on Fon's website. This version allows a person's Facebook friends to log on to their Wi-Fi network using Facebook Connect, the report explained.

Fon was established in 2006 and its website says it now has over 12.3 million hotspots all over the world. The company's previous investors include Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, Skype, and Index Ventures. The Spanish firm's last funding round in 2011 raised around $58 million, VentureBeat reported.

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