Luxul was founded in 2000, and began life as an Internet service provider. But the company has recently "modified the business plan from being an ISP to being an equipment maker," said Luxul board member and Canopy Ventures Managing Director Ron Heinz. 

 

North Salt Lake, Utah-based Luxul develops antennae and amplifiers used to set up zones of WiFi coverage. Heinz said the $600,000 Series C round closed, with contributions from individual investors, roughly one month ago. Canopy had previously invested some $400,000 in Luxul, in rounds which closed in 2001 and 2003, Heinz said. 

 

"It\\'s really just started to grow," Heinz said of Luxul, adding that the new funding will be used to expand sales and marketing and to add to its engineering staff. Heinz said the company is encouraged by increased use of the advanced WiFi standards for which it develops equipment, such as 802.11b and 802.11g. 

 

Luxul Chief Executive Tyler Crawford didn\\'t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

Heinz said the decision was made by both Canopy and Luxul\\'s management to shift away from simply being "a reseller of bandwidth" because they felt the company possessed strong engineering talent that could be put to better use. "We wanted to redirect their energies" to developing their own intellectual property, Heinz said. 

 

Luxul currently has a number of undisclosed customers including hospitals and hotel chains.

 

By John Letzing