GigaOM

The municipal wireless startup MetroFi that champions the free ad-supported WiFi model has been in the spotlight recently, though not all of it rosy. The company turned on its Foster City, California WiFi network this week, and won a contract with AT&T to cover Riverside. CEO Chuck Haas even told us yesterday that the company quietly raised a series B round of $6 million in funding from the Sevin Rosen Fund and August Capital in June to bring the company’s total funding to $15 million (the website still says $9 million series A).

But last week the Sevin Rosen Fund said it is throwing in the towel and returning its latest fund to investors. We’ve been curious to know how the moves of the Sevin Rosen Fund would affect MetroFi, particularly the deal with Portland, which is a large deployment that the company plans to build and run alone.

Haas says that the Portland network is on track and will be live for residents by the holiday season. Haas also said that the dissolving of the latest Sevin Rosen Fund won’t affect MetroFi because the company raised money from an earlier fund, and will still be able to raise money left in earlier funds. He said in addition to the recent funding in June, the company plans to raise money sometime next year.

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