Mavenir scored a $500 million minority, equity investment from Koch Strategic Platforms, an investment subsidiary of Koch Industries.
Affiliates of Siris Capital Group, a technology-focused private equity firm, will remain majority equity holders of Mavenir.
Koch Strategic Platforms (KSP) focuses on four investment categories, with computing and connectivity being one of those categories. KSP aims to be a partner beyond capital investment by leveraging the resources and capabilities of Koch Industries, which is the largest private company in the U.S. with annual revenues of $115 billion.
Mavenir has emerged as a leader in the open radio access network (RAN) arena. It not only provides open RAN software, but it has also gotten involved in leading an ecosystem of open RAN radio innovation.
RELATED: Mavenir stokes open RAN, creates radio reference designs
Speaking with Fierce in December 2020, Mavenir’s CEO Pardeep Kohli said open RAN won’t be successful unless there are radios that suit the needs of many operators who all have different spectrum and different requirements. “We want to reduce the complexity of building a radio,” said Kohli.
In a statement today Kohli said, “Together with KSP and our service provider customers, we expect to bring innovation and 5G to revolutionize industries such as energy, industrial automation and health care.”
Frank Baker, Co-Founder of Siris, said, “We have been anticipating the transformation of mobile networks, and that time has arrived. Mavenir is uniquely positioned to lead the 5G transformation given its investment in disruptive products, like OpenRAN, and extensive relationship with over 250 CSPs.”
RELATED: Dish names Mavenir as first vendor for 5G network build
About a year ago, Mavenir was the first vendor that Dish Network named to help it build its new 5G network in the U.S.
For Koch's part, the announcement with Mavenir is the second time this month that the name "Koch" has shown up in telecom news.
RELATED: Microsoft adds Alkira to its ‘hand-picked’ startups to aid Azure
Koch was mentioned in relationship to a startup called Alkira, which helps enterprises to quickly create an IP backbone. Koch Business Solutions is a customer of Alkira.