Monday, September 15, 2008

Ambient Devices takes on first funding, from .406 Ventures

By Mass High Tech Staff

Internet-connected information device maker Ambient Devices Inc. has entered into an equity deal with .406 Ventures Management LLC, for an undisclosed amount of funding, according to company officials.

Under the terms of the deal, which closed Sept. 10, 2008, Ambient’s current senior management team, including founders Pritesh Gandhi, COO, and Ben Resner, CTO, as well as CEO Carl Yankowski, will continue to run the company. Ambient says the deal will allow the Cambridge-based company to speed up product development, brand awareness and market penetration for its dedicated wireless information displays.

According to Yankowski, this is the first round of institutional investment Ambient has taken. The company’s devices, such as the 7-Day Weather Forecaster, the Baseball and Football ScoreCasts and the Ambient Umbrella, get their data wirelessly from Ambient’s InfoCast Network.

Ambient was founded in 2001 based on technologies developed at the MIT Media Lab. Founded in 2006, .406 Ventures is a Boston-based early-stage venture capital firm whose investments include ChosenSecurity Inc. of Newton, Burlington’s Veracode Inc. and American Biomass Inc., a Manchester, N.H.-based web company focusing on connecting dealers of biomass products to buyers.