The California-headquartered company, which was narrowly saved from bankruptcy by CEO Bob Plaschke in 2005, raised the funding from Paris-based Verdoso Industry and US investment bank Waveland Capital, as well as existing investors.

The funding will be used to boost sales and marketing efforts in the 16 countries where Sonim operates, as well as accelerating the development of three new phone models which will be announced later this year.

Several new board members are joining Sonim as part of the deal, including John Giere, a senior vice president at software company Openwave, and ex-Sybase divisional controller Richard Long, who becomes chief financial officer.

Says Giere, ‘Sonim is uniquely positioned to extend connectivity to environments where people have typically been out of reach, [such as] military, first responder or outdoor environments.’