Chinese private equity and venture firm Ants Capital has led a US$39 million series C round in Ayla Networks, a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider for the Internet of Things (IoT) sector.
3NOD, an original design manufactuer (ODM) of smart lifestyle products, new investors Mitsui and Acorn Pacific also participated in the round, says a company announcement.
Existing backers of the company including Cisco Investments, Crosslink Capital, International Finance Corp. (IFC), Linear Venture, SAIF Partners, Oriza Ventures, SJF Ventures and Voyager Capital also reinvested.
"The IoT (sector) will be the next area where major winners will emerge, and we invested in Ayla because it has unmatched traction inside China and globally with leading manufacturers making IoT products," says Yin Min, managing partner of Ants Capital.
The company last secured US$14.5 million series B round from Cisco, IFC, SAIF Partners, Linear Venture, and SJF Ventures in 2014.
Established in 2013, Ayla provides IoT platforms for manufacturers in many markets, including home appliances, residential and commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems, water heaters, water softeners, and home fire and safety products.
Ayla has established IoT clouds in North America, China and Europe. In China, Ayla has built out its platform to integrate and align with WeChat, including a single WeChat sign-in so users can control multiple smart home, smart health and other IoT lifestyle products from a single app.
Ant Capital is described in the announcement as a boutique investment bank and asset management company headquartered in China with investment interests in China, North America and Europe.
It's unclear if the company is in any way connected with Ant Financial, an Internet finance unit associated with Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.