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September 06, 2006
InsideContactless Raises $25M For New Markets
Sofinnova-backed INSIDE Contactless, a fabless semiconductor company, has just raised a large sized round to add to its sales and marketing operations in Asia and the US, plus invest in getting its product into two high volume markets, things that consumers increasingly have on them at all times: a cellphone and bank cards.
The startup said on Monday that it had raised $25M in a deal that brought in two new US-based venture-firms, Granite Global Ventures and EuroUs Venture. Earlier investors, including Sofinnova Partners, now the largest shareholder, along with Israel-based investors, Vertex Venture Capital, Vertex Management, GIMV of Belgium, and France's Siparex Ventures, also particpated.
It just raised $10M a year ago. Its core business has been in inventory tags and contactless smartcards for access systems. Now its getting into debit and credit cards, with chips that supplement the magnetic stripe to enable wireless for contactless transactions.
It also develops chips targeted at mobilephones to enable users to buy bus and subway tickets, cinema tickets, redeem coupons, and the like by waving the phone at wireless readers.
The cellphone is going to be getting more handy if InsideContactless has its way.
Industry trade publication, Card Technology, published an interview with the startup's CEO Rémy de Tonnac who said that the firm had not planned to raise this much money, but did so to be ready in case market predictions should prove correct.
“Those two markets, in which we are positioned, are on the verge for explosion,” he says. “We have to be ready; we have to invest in the product roadmap.” ... “Initially, the plan was not to raise that much money,” he says. “(We think) probably it is better to do a larger round now, so we can move aggressively.”
Inside says it will ship 25 million contactless chips this year, not counting inventory tags, up from about 20 million last year, according to Card Technology, adding that the company will not profitable until 2008.
This deal is the second French RFID firm to raise a significant amount of VC money this year, both tapping an international syndicate of investors to help take the risky big step into the US and other glogal markets. The other one was Tagsys, which is targeting its chips at tracking, tracing, and authentification applications.
Read - InsideContactless Feature (Card Technology)
Read - Tagsysm Moves To US Raised VC (a:c euro)
Posted on September 6, 2006 09:28 AM | Posted to News And Updates | Venture Capital | Permalink
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