Ekahau Acquired by Ookla – The Largest Ever Exit for Nexit

Ookla LCC., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, has acquired the Nexit portfolio company Ekahau.

The acquisition broadens the offering portfolio of Ookla, the global leader in worldwide internet performance testing and also gives Ekahau more resources to serve its global customer base.

Great News for Ekahau and Ekahau customers

Ookla is the global leader in fixed broadband and mobile network testing applications, data and analysis. Over ten million tests are actively initiated by consumers each day across all Speedtest platforms, with more than 20 billion completed to date. As a result, Ookla has the most comprehensive analytics on worldwide internet performance and accessibility.

With the acquisition of Ekahau, Ookla can now add the industry-leading enterprise wireless network design and troubleshooting tools and expertise to its offering.

Mr. Mika Hakala, the CEO of Ekahau says in his blog post: “Not only is Ookla a global, go-to brand for users looking to understand their network performance, but they are also on the same mission to enable the best network user experience. With all of the complementary technologies, industry knowledge, reach and mission of both companies, I feel the combination is so much more than the sum of its parts!”

The Largest-ever Exit for Nexit

While Nexit funds has been part of even larger exits (e.g. the sale of Mobile365 to Sybase), this exit is the best ever for a Nexit. With a majority ownership stake in Ekahau – the second largest owner being the current Chairman of Nokia, Mr. Risto Siilasmaa – Nexit realizes its largest return on investment to date, as well as one of the best business-to-business company, exits ever by a Finnish venture capital fund.

Michel Wendell, General Partner of Nexit and Chairman of Ekahau, says: “In many ways, Ekahau is representative of what we try to achieve with our Activist VC method and Transatlantic Bridge and we extremely proud and happy about this exit which is a great deal for Ookla, Ekahau, and especially the customers of both companies.”

The results of this long-term cooperation between Nexit and Ekahau’s management team are now evident: counting Ekahau, Next now has a dozen successful US exits under its belt.

About Ekahau

Ekahau is the global leader in solutions for enterprise wireless network design and troubleshooting. More than 15,000 customers, including 30% of Fortune 500 companies, run their networks with Ekahau’s Wi-Fi planning and measurement solutions. The software and hardware solutions design and manage superior wireless networks by minimizing network deployment time and ensuring sufficient wireless coverage across all industries, project sizes, building infrastructures and levels of complexity. Ekahau is recognized for delivering the easiest-to-use, most reliable solutions for Wi-Fi planning, site surveys, troubleshooting, and optimization. Whether a corporate office, hotel, hospital or university – if the Wi-Fi works well, it has likely been done using Ekahau’s Wi-Fi Design solutions.

Ekahau is headquartered in Reston, Virginia and has much of its R&D and product-related functions in Helsinki, Finland. www.ekahau.com.

About Nexit Ventures

Nexit Ventures, the Activist VC, is a venture capital firm focused on digital disruption. Leveraging its extensive network in the global tech marketplace, Nexit invests primarily in Nordic early-stage b2b companies with products and services for a global market. For its portfolio companies, Nexit provides a bridge to lucrative US markets, resources and exit opportunities. Nexit has helped several portfolio companies enter the market and has subsequently realized several successful exits of its portfolio companies in the United States, the world’s leading M&A arena for technology ventures. For further information, please visit www.nexitventures.com.

About the Activist VC method

In our two decades of Venture Capital, Nexit has adopted a set of six key operating principles we call the Activist VC Method. We believe these principles make a lot of sense for focused funds and teams like Nexit and help create better outcomes for our portfolio companies and higher returns for our investors.

For more information about the Activist VC Method, please see www.nexitventures.com/blog/activist-vc-manifesto.