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Koolspan Raises $1M and Prepares to Raise First Institutional Round
By Giada Cardoletti
12/12/2003
Bethesda, Md -- Just over a year after it was founded, Koolspan, a developer of security technology for the Wi-Fi spectrum, is preparing to close a $1 million round from individuals, announce its first product, and raise its first institutional round in the first quarter of 2004 which is expected to range between $7 million and $15 million, chief executive officer Tony Fascenda told VentureWire.

Mr. Fascenda, 57, the founder of two wireless companies that were both sold, said Koolspan will begin raising its institutional round in the first quarter of the new year. Fundraising will span over several quarters and will be driven by the success of Koolspan's product launch, he said.

Koolspan will launch its 802.11 wireless LAN security smartcard-based token In January 2004. The SecureEdge Unilock is a two-way smartcard that is plugged behind an access point and provides security to enterprise mobile devices without needing a server connection. Users will insert a physical token, the Client Key, into a USB port on their laptop or another Koolspan-enabled network "lock," which is able to authenticate and secure approved users who are logging onto the network from any location with 256-bit AES encryption.

Mr. Fascenda said SecureEdge will be the cheapest Wi-Fi security technology for the enterprise on the market. Each smart-card will sell for about $100 per user depending on volume, and will save corporations on servers and maintenance cost, he said.

Koolspan was formed in February 2002. Founders Jeff Mose, Rick Gutowski and Mr. Fascenda all invested $150,000 to launch Koolspan. Mr.Fascenda was the largest shareholder. The company raised a seed round in August 2002 from Nobska Ventures and other investors including the Challenge Fund of the State of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development, the State of Maryland's Technology Development Corporation, the Maryland Industrial Partnership program, the Supper Club and individual investors. No new board members were announced at the time. Proceeds were used to complete product development and initiate beta testing which involved two government agencies and three undisclosed Fortune 500 companies.

The Bethesda, Md.-based company, employs nine and is in the process of hiring more engineers, and expanding it customer support and sales force.

Mr. Fascenda holds 10 patents and 11 more for Koolspan are pending approval. While a student at Penn State, Mr. Fascenda put together a system that captured information about the speed and location of cars. By the late 1970s Formula One and the Indianapolis 500 bought the license for the technology and made it their official timing system. He was also the founder of Dataspeed later bought by Lotus and Newspager, bought by Motorola.


http://www.koolspan.com