Sitenna raises $2.1m with Samsung among the backers

Sitenna, an Irish-founded start-up that connects mobile operators with landlords to help them identify locations to install masts, has raised $2.1 million (€1.9 million) in seed funding from backers that include Samsung.

The consumer electronics giant has backed the company via its Samsung Next arm, which invests in companies working across artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, fintech, infrastructure, healthtech and mediatech.

Other investors in the seed round include the prestigious Silicon Valley-based accelerator programme, Y Combinator, and US venture capital firm, Merus.

Investment

The investment comes after the start-up last year participated along with six other Irish companies in Y Combinator, whose alumni include Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Doordash, Reddit, The Athletic and Dropbox.

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Sitenna is a cloud-based software platform that helps telecos find new locations to put up towers and antennae by connecting them with landlords, who gain from additional income from hosting the equipment on their sites. The company was founded by Daniel Campion and Brian Sexton in 2020 and has offices in Limerick, Birmingham and London.

The company claims it can save telcos huge sums by identifying and securing sites for them, something that has become more important as the rollout of 5G gains pace.

Mr Campion, Sitenna’s chief executive, described the investment as a “vote of confidence” in the company’s strategy.

“The telecoms market is ripe for disruption with billions of dollars being inefficiently spent on network processes that are still based on the days of 2G. This investment will allow us to continue to develop our suite of products, as well as gain a foothold in the US market following our successful UK launch,” he said.