Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Wednesday, February 24 2021 - 00:30
AsiaNet
Plume Raises $270 Million at $1.35 Billion Valuation
PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

  --New financing from Insight Partners will fuel Plume's accelerating growth--

Plume(R) ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3075200-1&h=2447660271&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.plume.com%2F&a=Plume 
), the company behind the smart home service offerings of more than 170 
Communications Service Providers (CSPs) served to more than 22 million 
households across the globe, today announced that it has closed a $270 million 
minority investment from global venture capital and private equity firm Insight 
Partners. This Series E round at a $1.35 billion valuation brings Plume's total 
equity funding to $397 million. 

Photo - 
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1442337/Plume_QC_Inside_Partners_Twitter_post.jpg 

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1442338/Plume_Insight_Partners_Logo.jpg
 
Plume was founded on the premise that a device will only ever be as smart as 
the network it's connected to, and that the existing smart home services were 
sorely lacking. Instead of attempting to improve only wireless coverage through 
distributed hardware, Plume's approach is entirely different – a comprehensive 
suite of cloud-controlled front-end services delivered over a smart, 
software-defined network. Plume's HomePass(TM) front-end services suite 
consists of adaptive and self-optimizing whole-home WiFi, AI driven 
cybersecurity and IoT device protection, sophisticated parental supervision, 
secure access controls, and motion awareness. HomePass is complemented by a 
powerful, data-driven back-end operations platform offering real-time and 
predictive customer support tools, network control center applications, deep 
analytics, comprehensive dashboards, consumer behavior and satisfaction 
insights, churn prediction, and retention marketing services for CSPs through 
Plume's Haystack(TM) and Harvest(TM) suites.

Plume will use the funding to further increase investment in research & 
development and lean more aggressively into sales, marketing, and partnerships. 
The company will seek to continue its rapid product, revenue, customer, 
channel, and geographic expansion and plans to add employees in all of its 
offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

"Growth in the smart home category is exploding, but the quality of consumer 
experience has fallen short," said Insight Partners Managing Director Ryan 
Hinkle, who has been appointed as a director on Plume's board. "We are 
convinced that Plume, with its scalable cloud data platform approach, highly 
efficient go-to-market strategy, strong momentum, top-quartile financial 
performance across all SaaS KPIs – including revenue, growth rates, gross 
margin, efficiency and retention metrics – and world class team is transforming 
this category. We're delighted to join and support this exciting journey."

Customers benefit from Plume's constantly expanding platform through 
OpenSync(TM), the most widely supported open-source, silicon-to-cloud framework 
for smart spaces. With OpenSync, CSPs can decouple their service offerings from 
hardware and rapidly curate and deliver new services over a multi-vendor, 
open-platform architecture. Managed by a massively scalable cloud control 
plane, new services can often be delivered without requiring new equipment, 
reducing CAPEX spend and extending the useful life of existing infrastructure. 
Since its creation in 2018, OpenSync has grown to power more than 26 million 
access points and switches across a broad range of silicon SDK and CPE 
platforms, and has attracted many third-party developers and contributors.

"We could not be more enthusiastic about welcoming Ryan to our board, and our 
partnership with the entire Insight team," said Fahri Diner, Co-founder and CEO 
of Plume. "By leveraging machine learning and AI, cloud data, open-source, deep 
ecosystem partnerships, and a scalable platform, we uniquely address the 
disconnect between the expectations of smart spaces and the service provider's 
ability to deliver flawless experiences to them – while building a leading, 
high-growth SaaS business in a large, under-served market. An even stronger 
balance sheet through this cash infusion, coupled with our high operating 
leverage, sets the stage for Plume to continue to invest confidently in our 
future."

Jefferies acted as financial advisor to Plume on the transaction.

About Plume
Plume(R) is the creator of the world's first SaaS experience platform for 
Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and their subscribers deployed 
globally. As the only open and hardware-independent solution, Plume enables the 
rapid delivery of new services for connected homes (and beyond) at massive 
scale. For consumers, Plume delivers self-optimizing WiFi, cyber-security, 
access controls, parental controls, motion sensing, and more. CSPs get robust 
back-end applications for unprecedented visibility and both reactive and 
pre-emptive support. Plume leverages OpenSync(TM), an open-source framework 
which comes pre-integrated and supported on the leading silicon, CPE and 
platform SDKs.

Plume's investors include Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, Foxconn, 
Insight Partners, Jackson Square Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Presidio 
Ventures, Qualcomm, Samsung, Service Electric Cablevision, Shaw Ventures, 
Silicon Valley Bank, and UpBeat Venture Partners.

Visit www.plume.com, www.plume.com/homepass and www.opensync.io.

Follow Plume on LinkedIn ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3075200-1&h=3681673118&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fplume-wifi&a=LinkedIn 
) and Twitter ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3075200-1&h=2381043213&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fplume&a=Twitter 
).

Plume, HomePass, Haystack, Harvest and OpenSync are trademarks or registered 
trademarks of Plume Design, Inc.

About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm 
investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are 
driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight 
Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised 
through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. 
Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary 
executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to 
foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight 
encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create 
opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, 
visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

Source - Plume Design, Inc. 

CONTACT: Anne Baker, Inkhouse, plume@inkhouse.com 
Translations

Japanese