WiZN Systems raises an undisclosed angel round led by Taiwan’s Foxconn

BENGALURU: WiZN Systems, a maker of home automation solutions, has raised an undisclosed angel round led by Taiwan’s Foxconn, maker of Apple phones as well as angel investors to fuel the expansion of the company.

As a part of this deal, Foxconn will manufacture the initial set of hardware devices for WiZN. In addition, Rahul Chowdhri, former partner at venture fund Helion Venture will be joining the board as a non-executive director. Kanwaljit Singh, cofounder FireSide Ventures and a former partner at Helion also participated in this funding round.

“We hope to become the platform for anything connected to homes in India,” said Amit Premy, chief executive officer of WiZN. Founded in 2014 by the former Texas Instruments employee, WiZN has a set of hardware and software solutions for that can be retrofit into existing homes. Angel rounds in India typically range from Rs 3- Rs 6 crore.

Currently, connected devices from the western world do not work very well in the Indian context. Unlike western countries, Indian homes use RCC structures and thick solid walls which drastically reduce the radio frequency communication range inside the house.

WiZN Systems uses the free sub-Giga Hertz band (865-867 MHz) to ensure signals penetrate through walls within houses. This is to avoid intermingling with the high power radiation sources like Wi-Fi devices and microwave ovens operating in 2.4GHz RF band in crowded residential complexes.

“We find WiZN's proprietary technology impressive with the traits on stability, wide-ranged connectivity and energy saving. Those advantages fit the needs and applications in IoT and smart home space, and we hope WiZN lead the technology innovation in this field,” said FIH in a statement to ET.

FIH is the international holdings arm of Foxconn Technology Group.

The Bengaluru-based startup has also developed a software stack, complete with a protocol to achieve very long range communication without compromising on the response time.

“This is a perfect point of entry for them in the Indian market - opportunity and timing wise,” said Singh of FireSide Ventures, which also participated in the round. “Now it is about execution.”