California-based cellular IoT start-up Cavli Wireless has closed $10m series A funding round led by Chiratae and Qualcomm.

Cavli designs and manufactures cellular modules in 4G and 5G technologies with integrated eSIM and global connectivity. It began its journey in 2017, when co-founders John Mathew, Ajit Thomas, Tarun Thomas George and Akhil Zeeb aligned on the mission that IoT should be made simple, seamless and global.

Cavli has evolved into a global team spread across four continents, delivering IoT to product makers from more than 30 countries. It already operates across the USA, India, Spain, Vietnam, UK, France, Italy, Turkey and Germany.

“This series A will enable us to strengthen our position in the global IoT market by expanding our product portfolio, enhancing R&D capabilities, and growing our international presence,” said John Mathew, CEO of Cavli Wireless. “Cavli plans to invest in cutting-edge technologies, such as 5G with edge processing capabilities, to address the automotive and industrial sectors globally. With our platform, Cavli Hubble, tightly integrated with our hardware portfolio, we are pretty confident that silicon-to-cloud integration in its true sense is now a reality.”

Tarun Thomas George, Cavli COO, added: “We are delighted to welcome such a distinguished group of global investors on board, who resonate completely with our vision. Our team is united by a passion for developing and delivering innovative IoT technologies that can drive transformative changes to our customers and, with this investment, we are poised to accelerate the pace of that change.”

This investment comes at a time when the global IoT market is experiencing rapid growth, with the number of connected devices projected to surpass 30 billion by 2025. Cavli’s suite of IoT connectivity, backed by its Hubble connectivity management cloud platform, provides businesses with the infrastructure needed to harness the power of IoT, driving digital transformation and creating opportunities for growth.

Lead investor Chiratae Ventures is a 16-year-old Indian technology venture capital fund advisor.

“Cavli Wireless has demonstrated a strong commitment to innovation and customer success, positioning the company as a leader in the intersection of mobility and IoT space,” said TCM Sundaram, vice chairman of Chiratae Ventures. “We are excited to support Cavli’s vision and believe their unparalleled IoT connectivity expertise will enable them to become an indispensable partner for businesses worldwide.”

Quinn Li, senior vice president of Qualcomm, the other lead investor, added: “With the growing penetration of 5G and increasing demand for IoT-enabled applications across industries, the need to help customers accelerate development and deployment of IoT products has become essential. Cavli Wireless integrates modem hardware, connectivity and device management into a single platform helping businesses easily deploy their IoT products.”

Cavli is headquartered in San Jose, California.