Investment in Mist Systems, Inc.

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President & CEO, Toshiki Nakayama), has invested in Mist Systems, Inc. (headquartered in Cupertino, California; CEO, Sujai Hajela), a U.S.-based start-up company that provides self-learning wireless networks using artificial intelligence and the cloud.

Background
Mist built the first wireless platform for the smart device era. By leveraging the latest in cloud, wireless, AI, and big data technologies, the Mist Learning WLAN delivers unprecedented insight into the user experience and eliminates the operational burdens of legacy Wi-Fi architectures by replacing time consuming manual tasks with proactive automation. For the first time, Wi-Fi service levels can be set, monitored and enforced, problems can be quickly resolved across the wireless/wired/device domains, and onsite truck rolls are no longer required.

In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring Enterprise grade Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IoT together to deliver personalized, location-based services for wireless users. Through patented vBLE※1 technology and machine learning in the cloud, Mist virtualized the indoor location experience. No battery powered BLE beacons or site surveys are required, delivering unprecedented scale and ease of operations. The Mist platform enables new indoor mobile experiences, such as wayfinding, proximity messaging, and contextual alerts.
NTTDOCOMO Ventures is expecting Mist Systems to contribute in creating new value in this field.

1: vBLE
The function that enables location identification by using 8 Bluetooth Low Energy beams without physical beacon hardware.