Canada-based Expeto recently closed a new funding round that positions the vendor to better compete against rivals targeting mid- to large-sized enterprises looking to deploy private 5G networks.

Expeto earlier this month closed a $12 million Series B funding round that was led by existing investors Evok Innovations, Lavrock Ventures, and Mistral Venture Partners, and included new investors 5G Open Innovation Lab and Samsung Next. Expeto had previously closed a $10 million Series A financing in early 2021, and a $4 million Series A funding round in mid-2018.

The vendor’s private 5G efforts are based on its NeXtworking Platform, which is a fully managed service designed to be deployed behind a corporate firewall, in a private or public cloud, or at edge locations. It includes the enterprise packet core, orchestration, routing control, and management that allows enterprises to create secure network connections, manage subscribers and network policies, and monitor overall network usage and performance.

The platform also taps into Expeto’s history of working in the IoT space to support single-SIM mobility between public and private instances of the network.

Expeto CEO Michael Anderson stressed the simplicity of the platform, adding that traditional telecom-focused vendors have made private 5G deployments difficult for enterprises to manage.

“You look at creating a private 5G network for an enterprise, which has traditionally been very telco-centric … just kind of an extension. If you look at Nokia and Ericsson's enterprise forays, they're just saying let's kind of rinse and repeat what we're doing, and they really haven't paid too much attention into a day in the life of the enterprise, how they do business, how they like to operate, the IT workflow.”

Expeto’s goal is to make the process easier for enterprise IT teams and allow them to focus on their company outcomes.

“What we're doing is we're enabling these customers to much more easily deploy … essentially manage these networks in their terms, integrated with their workflow just like they're used to [with] Wi-Fi,” Anderson said. “And that's huge because there's nothing worse for an enterprise, especially in these headwinds, in these markets, to invest a lot of money in things that really aren't going to move the line and drive outcomes in terms of cost savings and new revenue opportunities. [For] an enterprise to try something new it really needs to have a very relevant and nurturing business case.”

Anderson added that one way Expeto attempts to simplify this process is by being as accommodating to different technology needs as possible. He explained the NeXtworking Platform is cellular technology agnostic, and can run on any spectrum resource, including licensed cellular, lightly licensed spectrum like Consumer Broadband Radio Spectrum (CBRS) spectrum, and unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi.

The vendor has seen success. Last year it scored a significant five-year deal with Canadian telecom giant Rogers to power the operator’s private wireless business. The deal calls for Expeto to support Rogers’ service that provides an on-site wireless network platform that the enterprise can control.

However, Expeto is also operating in a market that has gained considerable attention over the past six months. Telecom operators, equipment vendors, integrated service providers, and hyperscalers have all begun to target the space.

Anderson said market attention is good for all players, but that the end-goal for his firm is to simplify the deployment and management process.

“I love to see success stories from the Amazons, from the Federated, … from everybody because I think it props up the industry,” Anderson said. “Where we differentiate and where we win is not talking about speeds and feeds. It's not talking about RAN. It's talking about the outcomes, and I would say consistent outcomes that our customers are driving with a really reliable, fast, and most importantly integrated network that doesn't disrupt the workflow of the enterprise, it complements the workflow so they can actually put that network to work without a lot of drama, without a lot of extra things. Just getting it to work.”