January 11, 2008
Sensor Tech Attracting European VC
Sensor technology has been attracting venture capital in Europe with several deals in recent weeks. We reported the Movea deal earlier this week and the €25M Series B for SensorDynamics in Austria. But there have been a few others.
Back in November, Nordic Venture Partners invested a hefty €12M in Exensor, a Swedish military system vendor specialized in perimeter security systems. Its products use the kind of sensor technology that Scottish startup Pyreos develops.
Edinburgh-based Pyreos has raised $3.8M from Braveheart plc, along with Siemens Technology Accelerator and the Scottish Venture Fund, according to an EE Times article this week.
(Image source: Exensor.se)
Exensor sells systems that include a wireless mesh networking communications package linking its sensor units (that include infra red, acoustic and three other sensors) to a database that detects and counts passing vehicles, humans (and whether or not they are gun-toting), and even animals. It has been winning sales deals in Germany and Finland.
(Image source: Pyreos.com)
Founded in July 2007, Pyreos is commercializing infrared sensor tech that came out of Siemens. Its CEO is Jeff Wright was co-founder of MicroEmissive Displays, which he helped lead from start-up to flotation on the London Stock Exchange, according to the startup's website.
The Pyreos sensor tech is good for motion detection, flame detection, and people counting, it says. The startup claims small size and lower cost, compared to existing IR sensors.
Posted at 08:16 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
November 06, 2007
Ireland's S3 Acquires Portuguese VC-backed Acacia Semiconductor
Irish electronics firm S3 has acquired a Portuguese technology business called Acacia Semiconductor for an undisclosed sum. Shareholders that stand to benefit from the acquisition are Change Partners, ISQ Capital and PME-FSCR. Change Partners is an venture capital company in Portugal. ISQ Capital is the venture capital arm of the ISQ Group, one of the largest engineering services firms in Portugal. PME Investimentos manages investment funds specialized in high tech.
Read- Silicon Republic
Read- details on the rationale and the deal in context of recent chip M&A eetimes
Posted at 11:05 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
November 05, 2007
Swiss Memory Innovator Raises $25M Series C
Innovative Silicon Inc, a Lausanne born now US-based developer of ultra-dense intellectual property for making a new kind of random access memory chip announced today that Wellington Partners Venture Capital has joined with all existing investors (Index, Austin Ventures, Highland Capital, Auriga, and chipmaker Soitec) to lead a $25M Series C round of investment in the company.
Recent 'multi-million dollar deals' with leading DRAM maker, Hynix, and microprocessor giant AMD, are what convinced Bart Markus, general partner at Wellington Partners, to sign on.
View Innovative Silicon
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October 29, 2007
Semiconductor Design Cycle Wizard
German startup Process Relations has raised €700K from the HighTech Gründerfonds, and co-investors, to commercialize a software application that enables semiconductor and MEMS device developers to track and document and integrate data along the entire design cycle: from idea to experimental to test stage, including the final integration into the fab process system.
It's targeting a 'pain point', we'd say. And it gives the following as an example. When an engineer leaves a development project, his expertise and memory of who did what, when, why, and how goes with him. And when a new engineer joins the team he/she will be overwhelmed with too much unstructured data.
Based on this reporter's experience in the electronics industry, an application like this has potential beyond chipcos. The trick is making it palatable for engineers to take the time to use it.
View Process Relations
Posted at 06:54 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
October 25, 2007
From Austria : Semiconductor 2.0
The title is the post is the trademarked tag-line of Austrian startup, NanoIdent. Unlike a lot of 2.0 startups this reporter has looked at over the past two years, this one feel like it is the beginning of something new.
The four year old Austrian company is specialized in developing and manufacturing printed semiconductors using organic and inorganic materials. It's already generating sales of single digit millions, mainly in customer-financed product development projects – not trials -- and it has visibility on ticking that figure up to a two digit million one next year.
The Linz-based startup has its own fab. It is not an indulgence, it is a necessity, according to Klaus G Schroeter, co-founder and CEO. "Our blue-chip customers won't abandon their old platforms for something new unless they can see that what we offer can be produced in volume," said Schroeter.
The recently completed fab in Austria is able to produce some 40K square meters of wafer chip surface a year (a phrase that is a throwback to silicon semiconductors).
This is what printable semiconductors from this startup look like
NanoIdent is working with companies in the diagnostics, biometrics, and industrial sensor markets in a classic OEM model.
Low cash burn
The company's co-founding duo is a scientific innovator, Franz Padinger, and an experienced entrepreneur, Klaus G. Schroeter. Padinger sold his last startup, QSEL, which developed the solar cell technology to Konarka Technologies, which is a well-funded startup based in the US.
Before teaming up with Padinger, he founded BioID AG, a biometrics company specialized in simultaneous recognition of face, voice and lip movements and employed 80. It was acquired by a publicly traded company.
Your a:c euro reporter first researched the company back in 2005 and since then it has gone from prototype of one type of optical sensor to being able to offer several kinds of sensors, including diagnostic sensors (for DNA-based blood tests, for example), as well as the handheld reader technology to go with them.
A lab on a chip or handheld diagnostics product
It has done this on a remarkably small amount of invested capital, some €12.5M including debt. It is currently raising €10M in equity financing and hopes to attract family offices or high net worth individuals to the round.
Talent Seeks The Edge
Nanoident employs about 65 scientists and specialized researchers from 12 different nations. "Recruiting talent from around the world is not that difficult. Everyone wants to be on the forefront … to be part of the first company to produce sensors and sensor systems in printed semiconductors," said Schroeter.
The Austrian venture recently moved the headquarters of its diagnostic business unit, BioIdent, to California with a Sand Hill Rd address.
A mobile phone concept with a biometric sensor from NanoIdent
View Nanoident
Posted at 08:26 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
September 06, 2007
XMOS Semiconductor Defines $16M A Round
Here's another solid tech deal out of Europe today. XMOS Semiconductor, whose claim to fame is a chip platform with the flexibility of an FPGA at a lower cost - in what it calls 'Software Defined Silicon', has raised $16M in a Series A from Foundation Capital, along with its seed investors Amadeus Capital Partners and DFJ Esprit.
The Bristol-based startup, founded two years ago, has made the move from the lab to the market at speed according to its early backers. It also has big buzz in the trade press, despite it just getting ready to sample to lead customers in the next quarter.
We've heard about how much the chip is going to cost and how it can disrupt ASIC and ASSP markets, but we still haven't been given any hints about the applications or markets that will be first to adopt it.
For some background, there's a good write up on Bristol as a chip cluster, the folks that developed the transputer, one of whom is a co-founder of XMOS, and other spinoffs like Lattice Semiconductor in the US in Components in Electronics .
View XMOS
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September 05, 2007
VC-backed Chipidea Bought By Silicon Valley's MIPS
Just two years after VCs, Kennet Partners and Vision Capital, made their initial €12M investment in Lisbon-based Chipidea, an established Portuguese analog chip IP developer, it has been bought by MIPS Technologies [via Library House weekly newsletter].
The embedded systems semiconductor IP vendor out of Mountain View, Calif. said it will pay up to $127M in cash now, with an additional earnout paid in stocks and another $20M in cash over the next couple of years.
We are not sure how much Chipidea raised in total, but later that same year R Capital Partners added another €5M of capital in late 2005 and it recently raised €6.5M from a single investor Espírito Santo Ventures, which it called a Series C round.
During its short time as a VC-backed venture, Chipidea announced a bold but probably expensive plan to develop its own chips, and it did at least one small wireless acquisition.
View Chipidea
Posted at 05:25 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
August 10, 2007
Irish Intune Gets A $17.75M Optical Deal
Irish VC investment may down this year but it is not due to the lack of promising companies in the region, nor a lack of stock market stars in its recent tech past, as the Irish Independent illustrated in a recent feature story. You could also just ask the syndicate of London VCs that backed Dublin-based Intune Networks latest $17.75 round, namely Amadeus Capital Partners, Balderton Capital and Spark Capital. (via SiliconRepublic.com)
Or ask the partners at Atlantic Bridge, the venture fund that invested some $16.2M into GPS chipmaker Glonav, and who've been talking up its growth in the East Asian market, or ask the Canadian investors that took a stake in the fabless semiconductor upstart Redmere Technologies, one of the companies that this publication's reporter of the first hour, Valerie Thompson, has been following.
Founded in 1999 by John Dunne and Tom Farrell, Intune is an optical transceiver developer that recently recruited Tim Fritzley, a former Microsoft IPTV executive, as chief executive.
Intune is commercializing its laser tech by developing components that it says meet the requirements for IPTV service providers
If you are into optical components, then the buzzword is ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop
Mulitplexors). As we read it, Intune has developed optical transceivers that support ROADM, which is what the telcos are using for the transport layer below Ethernet/IP for delivering IPTV and interactive services in their networks.
Balderton's George Coelho said in a Silicon Republic report on the deal: “The demands of the consumer have evolved significantly over the past decade and the requirement to deliver diverse, high-quality content in real-time is paramount to the success of the fixed-line telecoms industry. This presents an exciting opportunity for Intune. We are delighted to be involved with Intune and share their vision for the optical networking business.”
Early stage capital for Intune Networks was provided by Bank of Scotland (formerly ICC Ventures), Enterprise Ireland and angel investors including Chris McHugh and Leonard Donnelly.
Posted at 07:01 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
August 01, 2007
France's ACCO Raises First Round At $10M For 3G Cell Phone Chips
Saint Germain en Laye, France-based has raised a big $10M Series A round. ACCO is an analog and RF semiconductor design company. Pond Venture Partners and Partech International joined seed backer Siparex Ventures.
The company plans to make a CMOS power amplifier for 3G cell phone applications that can operate with the same power efficiency and robustness as a gallium arsenide version. The company was founded 13 years back as a semiconductor services firm.
Read - EE Times Post
Posted at 08:02 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 30, 2007
Wolfson Acquires VC-backed Sonaptic For Upto $40M
Scottish micro-electronics powerhouse Wolfson (probably best known as a supplier of Apple's iPod components) has acquired five year old Sonaptic, a VC backed venture chip startup that is specialized in audio chips for consumer electronics products for up to $40M (if earn outs are achieved after an initial payment of about $25M).
According to a statement we received from Sandy McKinnon, a partner at Pentech, the startup's early stage backer, Sonaptic was doing about $4M a year in sales and employed 31 people in Scotland.
Pentech invested in 2003, so this is a pretty quick turnaround for the Scottish early stage tech fund. The inside scoop is that it was a choice of raising a new VC round or taking an offer from acquisitive strategic investors, according to some insight in a TechConfidential report (see link below).
This is the second audio tech startup Wolfson has acquired in recent months. It also bought a pre-VC acoustic MEMs startup a few months ago called Oligon, which was also Scottish and co-founded by Richard Laming and Mark Hesketh. Price paid was about $5.7M we hear.
Laming was a Kymata cofounder, an extremely well funded optoelectronics startup that attracted big name VCs during the last venture cycle, which was eventually sold to Alcatel for in excess of $110M.
Read - sonapitc pays off for investors (techconfidential-thedeal.com )
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February 20, 2007
France's CoFluent Raises $2.6M First Round
The backers of CoFluent Design, a Paris-based developer of semiconductor design tools that enable simulation and verification of both hardware and software design flows, wrote in to say they invested in a $2.6M Series A round funding to expand its marketing and sales worldwide. The deal was led by Emertec Gestion, joined by BNP Paribas Private Equity and UFG Private Equity.
Its site has a good old fashioned sales pitch right up front.
Customers include 3G phone manufacturers, not the least challenging type of customer to deliver design tools to. Companies such as Nokia, Altera, and NXP are named as partners and customers.
View site
Posted at 05:05 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
February 01, 2007
VC-Backed Xignal Acquired By National Semiconductor
Germany-based Xignal Technologies, a fabless mixed signal semiconductor firm, is to be acquired by National Semiconductor for an undisclosed amount. The startup raised about $17M, we believe. Xignal raised $7 million in December 2000 from Benchmark Capital and Star Ventures, and raised another ten in a $10M round that brought in two new investors Atila Ventures and BayTech Venture Capital. Xignal was set up in Munich in 1999 by Yousif Ammar, Miki Moyal and Martin Groepl, who had previously worked together at Infineon.
Read - Press rel.
Posted at 05:55 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 31, 2007
Eyesquad Acquired - Quick Exit For VCs Baytech And Adara
Tessera Technologies announced today it will acquire VC-backed Eyesquad for $20M in cash. The deal comes less than a year after the developer of cellphone lenses raised a €4M series A round from Munich-based Baytech Venture Capital and Adara (Spanish VC).
Eyesquad, which still had $2M in cash on its books, has its HQ in Munich and R&D in Israel.
The startup's technology is targeted initially at cellphones and enables things like continuous optical zoom, built-in auto-focus and a close-up imaging capability.
Read - Eyesquad's Cameraphone Lens Breakthrough Attracts Early Stage VC (a:c euro)
Read - EETimes.com - Tessera buys imaging startup for $24 million (eetimes)
Posted at 05:08 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 16, 2007
CSR Gives Euro VCs Exits
Just like France's Thomson gave several European VCs an exit on their investments in Cirpack and Inventel in the recent past, another local market leader, Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), is giving VCs an exit with its two latest acquisitions.
The UK-based Bluetooth chipmaker said Monday it bought NordNav Technologies AB and the assets of Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd. for up to $110M (or about €85.1 million), both were venture-backed. The acquisitions enabled it to put out some industry buzz about being able to put GPS and positioning support in mobilephones at targeted price of $1.
CSR will pay a maximum of $75M for NordNav, depending on financial milestones. We don't have any further information on the returns these deals brought the VCs, although we are trying to find out.
Read- CSR pays $75 million to add GPS capability to Bluetooth (eetimes)
Read - CSR said it bought NordNav and assets of Cambridge Positioning for US$110 million (iht)
Posted at 07:57 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
December 05, 2006
VC For Nanda Technologies 10X Wafer Inspection Breakthrough
Investors in German chip wafer inspection startup, Nanda Technologies, say that the firm has a new method to check the quality of wafers that is a 10X efficiency improvement on existing systems, and as a result they've invested €1.8M to get a production prototype out of the lab and to fund market entry. Investors include the High-Tech Gründerfonds, Seedfonds Bayern and Ventegis Capital.
The firm's backers also said in a statement that the company's founders hail from Silicon Valley but they decided on Olching, Germany as the headquarters due to the region's 'leading-edge' suppliers of optical components and the nearness to potential customers in Asia, Europe, and the US.
Read- Ventegis Capital AG: Nanda Technologies erhält Finanzierung von Investorenkonsortium (boerse.de)
Posted at 11:26 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
October 17, 2006
Ireland's RedMere Taps Canuck VC For SCART Replacement Play
Drogheda, Ireland-based RedMere has raised $8.2M in a round led by Canada's Celtic House Venture Partners after about a year of fundraising, according to Electric News.
It looks like it is not just US VCs making moves when they see a good bet in Europe, Canadian VCs are at it too. The deal was apparently closed in the summer but we are just learning of it now. Co-investers on this round are Enterprise Ireland, 4th Level Ventures, Enterprise Equity, and smaller seed-round investors also contributed.
Founded in 2004, RedMere is a fabless play developing components that will eventually replace old Scart-standard, which will be driven by the emergence of a mass market for high definition TV.
The Scart cable market is a pretty huge one, covering the TVs themselves, media centres, media PCs, set-top-boxes, projection systems, home theatre systems, DVD recorders and personal video recorders.
The new capital will be invested in people. Some 15 new R&D hires are planned for US and Asia. RedMere currently employs 20 people in Cork and Drogheda.
Read - ElectricNews.net:News:Irish chip firm secures USD8.2m outlay (electric news)
Posted at 07:48 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
October 13, 2006
Germany's ChipVision Raises EUR5M
ChipVision Design Systems, a low power specialist in electronic design automation, has raised EUR5 million ($6.4M) in Series B. The round was funded by investors that included ChipVision's Series A investors, Target Partners and BayTech Venture Capital, both of Munich, Germany.
ChipVision is Based in Trendy Oldenberg
Posted at 10:56 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
September 13, 2006
Photonics Startup Oxxius Raises $10M For Tiny Laser Tech
Lannion, France-based Oxxius, a manufacturer of ultra-small yellow, violet, and blue lasers, has raised $ 10 million in a second round, led by existing investor Sofinnova Partners, along with new investors AXA Private Equity, and San Francisco-based Sofinnova Ventures.
The new money is to be used to develop the commercial and industrial operations of the company. Its aims is to be a first-tier laser provider to instrumentation manufacturers serving the biophotonics, spectroscopy, and related markets. Using Oxxius lasers will enable its customers to make smaller, more energy-efficient, analytical and measurement instrumentation.
Read -Laser specialist to ramp up production and strengthen market position. (webitpr)
Posted at 06:59 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 31, 2006
Light Blue Optics = Laser Tech For Mini Beamers + Big Screen TVs
3i said today it led a $2.5M seed investment in Light Blue Optics, whose optics technology can be used in miniature projectors. It recently demo'd its technology with Forth Dimension, the Scottish micro-display manufacturing company. (No typo - Forth is the name of a river in Scotland)
One of the applications that it has demonstrated is to deploy its optics with a micro-display to generate high-definition images for big screen (rear projection) TVs.
Read - Light Blue Optics secures US$2.5 million seed funding (press rel.)
Read - Personal beamer from Cambridge (a:c euro)
Posted at 11:45 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 23, 2006
Infineon Spinoff Qimonda Confirms Float - But Who Can Spell It?
With all the speculation about Europe's IPO markets sucking business away from the US public markets, it is interesting to note that German memory chipmaker Qimonda has confirmed it will float on the NYSE.
The IPO location, first announced earliler this year, was confirmed on Friday in a Bloomberg report that also said the plan is to raise a whopping $1.3B.
But we're wondering about the effect its name will have on its IPO plans. Isn't there a rule somewhere that you don't start a company name with Q (with all the issues of not having a "u" after it). And it should not have a vowel ending either ("o" and "a" and "e" are too easy to confuse in the minds of English speakers).
Journalists are already misspelling the name big time. (The first version of this post even had it wrong in the title). Here are a few of the misspellings we trolled on the various industry wires and news websites: quimondo, quimonda, and qimondo.
Qimonda's Gimmicky Corporate Imagery Confounds Rather Than Communicates.
How can potential buyers of the stock find analysis and information about the stock if they cannot remember how to spell it?
Read - Infineon to Raise as Much as $1.3 Bln in Qimonda IPO (bloomberg)
Posted at 07:09 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 19, 2006
Newnham Connects With VCs To Push Into Mass Market
Fabless semiconductor company, Newnham Technology, has raised $13.25M Series B (extension) round of venture capital financing, bringing in new investors Esprit Capital (recently formed by combining Prelude Ventures and Cazenove Private Equity).
It joins early backers Atlas Venture and Benchmark Capital.
To-date the firm has raised $21.75M.
Esprit/Prelude invested $3.5 M to buy a 13.5 percent stake in the company. It sees the deal as a later stage investment. Accordingly, the capital is targeted at expanding operations, accelerating development of Newnham's networking technology, and to position for what it describes as "major new high volume markets".
Regular a:c euro readers will know Newnham as the startup that we say Bill Gates would love because its silicon makes it easy to hook up several displays to a PC or laptop via a USB hub for example.
Another famous techie, David Mooring, former president and long-time executive at chip design company Rambus, is apparently a fan already. He has invested in the startup and joined its board.
Newnham chips are found in universal docking stations being sold by Kensington, a computer peripherals company.
The startup is headquartered in Palo Alto now and was founded in Cambridge where its main R&D and product development remain.
Read - Newnham Technology Raises $13.25 Million Series B (press rel.)
Read - VC Backed Newnham (a:c euro)
Posted at 12:39 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 17, 2006
Sofinnova Gets Italian Accent
Sofinnova Partners informed us today that it has led a €10.6M round of VC investment in Accent, an Italian spin off from ST Microelectronics and Cadence Design Systems.
Accent provides microelectronics design services and is an IP vendor. Some of the products it has contributed to include a golf ball with a homing device, a motorcycle jacket with built-in airbag, and an alarm that signals low tire pressure. It also has several telecommunications designs for broadband comms and cellphones.
The new capital will be used to add sales team personnel in the UK, US and Israel, and to start design operations in "cost-effective" areas such as Eastern Europe, China, Singapore or India.
Posted at 04:05 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
July 11, 2006
Hymite Makes Optical MEMS More Attractive
Investors have ponied up another €8M for Danish/German startup Hymite. This is the firm's third round. Its early backers are Sweden's Innovationskapital and TVM in Germany.
Hymite has developed ways to manufacture and package micron-sized electro-mechanical devices, mainly optical networking devices, such as transceivers, with a greater degree of automation.
Using some of the same processes we see in the chip industry, it churns out robust devices with a standardized shape and size (form factor) that enables them to be retrofitted into existing optical networking subsystems and components, as well as being used to make new sub-system designs cheaper.
We are assuming that the VCs put in the new money to finance ramping up for customer demand since this is a third round. But it is only an assumption. It does not have any newsflow of design in wins or contract announcement on its press relations pages, but it does have an Intranet link on its homepage for customer use.
Read - Themis Equity Partner: TVM führt erfolgreich bei Hymite A/S die dritte Finanzierungsrunde durch (gsc research)
Posted at 05:51 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 16, 2006
French Memory Chip Innovator Taps VC
Participating in a startup workshop a couple of years ago at the IMD, a Swiss business school, may have helped memory chip startup Crocus Technology to raise a whopper of a first round.
Maybe that or the fact that it stands to take a chunk of the multi-billion memory business with its disruptive chips. Either way, according to PE Week Wire, the French magnetic random access memories (MRAM) maker, has raised $17 million in Series A funding.
Both Sofinnova Ventures in Paris and Sofinnova Partners in the US invested, along with French funds: Ventech, CDC Entreprises Innovation, AGF Private Equity, Sofinnova Partners, as well as Switzerland's NanoDimension
Read - IMD Startup Competition (imd website)
Read - Crocus Funding (pe week wire)
Posted at 04:03 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 14, 2006
QuNano's Out To Disrupt Bright LED Chip Biz
Sweden's QuNano has raised venture capital to make high-brightness light emitting diodes (HBLED) on plain old silicon, rather than the more expensive substrates typically used for this type of semiconductor device.
It's modified CMOS process along with its own nanowire layering technology could be quite disruptive. The pitch is that within a couple of years Qunano could be mass producing LEDs, typically used as backlights and flashes in mobilephones, in long-life flashlights, and traffic lights (to name but a few apps), a lot more cheaply than the incumbents, such as Cree, Lumileds, Osram Opto, and Toshida.
According to its backers, Qunano owns what it calls a nanowire platform technology. The LED market is just the first that it is targeting.
Read - Qunano announces (press release)
Posted at 08:03 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 13, 2006
Euro VCs Back BridgeCo's Move To LA
BridgeCo, a Swiss startup specialized in digital home networking chips and middleware, has raised a series D round of $23M, led by two new investors, Advent Venture Partners and Wellington Partners, both European fund managers.
They were joined by all of BridgeCo’s Series C investors: Benchmark Capital, Cipio Partners (formerly Infineon Ventures), Earlybird Venture Capital, Fidelity Ventures and Intel Capital.
The company also announced the opening of their new global headquarters in Los Angeles. The capital injection is to be used to "accelerate market adoption and product development activities".
All but one of the firm's original founders have left the company and it has recently appointed Gene Sheridan as CEO who hails from an executive role in the communications unit of International Rectifier, a power semiconductor manufacturer. The move to LA is meant to tap the market proximity, the "entrepreneurial leadership talent, expansion, and exit opportunities" provided by that locale.
Read- BridgeCo Raises $23M in Latest Venture Finance Round
Posted at 02:48 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
June 07, 2006
Cambridge Broadband Founder Heads New Chip Startup
Peter Wharton, co-founder of wireless gear maker, Cambridge Broadband, is now heading a team of former Virata/Conexant engineers at startup Adventiq.
Until January Wharton was CEO of venture-backed Cambridge Broadband. Before founding that company in 2000, Wharton was part of the founding team of Adaptive Broadband, which was acquired by California Microwave, adopting the Adaptive Broadband name.
Adventiq is backed by Adder, a European manufacturer of KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switches, and RealVNC (Virtual Network Computing), a four year old Cambridge-based developer of software that enables IT and support desks to take control of remote servers, PCs, keyboard, video or mouse signals via the Internet.
The plan is to put RealVNC's enterprise-grade software on a chip and then get those chips embedded into a range of devices to target what the firm says is an $800M market.
The ex-Virata team Wharton is leading has a pedigree too. Virata was a broadband chipmaker that provided its venture-backers with stellar returns when it floated on the NASDAQ at €266M during the last VC cycle here. (It later merged with Globespan which was acquired by Conexant).
Read - Adventiq launches KVM over IP system on a chip(press release)
Posted at 04:35 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 16, 2006
French Digital TV Chip Startup Acquired
Silicon Laboratories has acquired French digital video broadcasting IP vendor Silembia for $20M. The French startup was founded in 2004 by a team that spun out of a Philips R&D lab in Rennes, France.
Read - Silicon Labs buys French digital TV startup (commsdesign)
Posted at 05:49 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 09, 2006
Spanish Chip Startup's Gotta Focus
What with Viscom going public in a nice-sized IPO this week, we're sensitive to machine vision startups, so a profile of Anafocus, a Spanish fabless chipmaker, on the IST newsite caught our eye today.
Anafocus is a Spanish startup that has developed a vision system-on-a-chip technology, called Eye-RIS. The first market it is targeting is security applications such as ultra high-speed tracking, in-door surveillance and guidance of unmanned vehicles. The idea is that security cameras equipped with the chips can be programmed to look out for anomalies or certain patterns.
Anafocus has yet to announce a design-in win and last raised VC in 2003 from Bullnet Capital, a tech oriented VC in Spain.
We've reporeted on similar chips over the years and are not sure what makes this different. We think it needs to focus a bit on marketing. Is its advantage cost, power consumption, quality of perofrmance? We are not sure and are not much more enlightened after visiting its website.
Anafocus could be in need of some smart money, or a big strategic partners to take it forward.
Read - Artificial vision technology proves
Posted at 09:01 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 08, 2006
Float For Machine Vision Firm Viscom
This week, Germany’s Viscom, which sells optical and sensor systems used by OEMs like Siemens and Bosch in electronics inspection gear, is to float on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
It aims to raise about €54M. About 20 percent of the float will be going to the founders, and the rest to the company to fund expansion and strategic acquisitions.
At 21 percent a year over the past four years, the firm’s growth rate is above the semiconductor equipment industry’s average, say press report. The rest of the equipment supply sector is growing at about 7 percent a year.
In 2005 its turnover was €50.5M with an EBIT margin of 20 percent. The implied valuation of the firm, based on its bookbuilding price range is between, €174M and €208M,
Viscom's hardware spies defects such as those that occur in the manufacturing of electronics and in the mounting of semiconductor devices on circuit boards.
Read -
IPO von Viscom: Marktführer aus Niedersachsen
Posted at 07:48 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 07, 2006
Cooling In A Microchip
Infineon, the German chipmaker, has spun off yet another R&D unit. This one leaves the currently restructuring mother-ship with chip technology that forms the heart of a tiny system that can cool, heat, or generate power.
Micropelt spun off from Infineon earlier this year and received startup capital from German investors, including a venture firm, SHS, and several banks in a deal that was announced in March. Infineon and the management team hold a minority stake.
Micropelt GmbH, develops and distributes components (Peltier-based) for cooling and heating, as well as thermo generators, which are manufactured using the same process as used to fabricate computer chips. The startup says that the advantages are small size, high cooling power densities, and a short response time. It has yet to announce a contract win but does have its data sheets, test results, and a design tool available for potential customers.
Applications include cooling fiber optic lasers, power generation in watches, and chip cooling.
Read - SHS takes a stake in the Infineon spin-off and in a development unit of the Agfa group
Posted at 08:26 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 02, 2006
VC backed BitBoys Acquired by ATI
Graphics chip firm BitBoys has been acquired by Canada's ATI Technologies Inc. for up to EUR 35.2 million (about US$44 million). Based in Finland, Bitboys, which recently completed a restructuring and is now focused on graphics processors for mobile devices, had raised several small rounds of venture capital over the years, most recently a €4M injection from Nokia Growth Partners in February. Other investors include Cipio Partners, along with a handful of Nordic investors.
We think it must have been a sweet deal for the latecoming investors, but we're not too sure about the early ones.
Read - ATI Acquires Bitboys
Posted at 11:40 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
New Embedded Memory Tech Brings In US and German VCs
Dutch fabless semiconductor firm, Cavendish Kinetics, tapped new investors Tallwood Venture Capital from Palo Alto, CA and Munich-based Wellington Partners for its second round raising $15.5M.
Someone said to the a:c recently that there isn't much trans-border dealmaking in Europe, but think about this one. Cavendish, is a 12 year old Dutch firm, commercializing technology developed at the UK's University of Cambridge, and its investors hail from the US, Germany, UK, and Canada. The venture has 10 investors altogether.
The new funds will be used to continue the development of its memory technology which is an alternative to FLASH and EPROMS. Via IP licenses, it sells to fabless semiconductor companies, independant design manufacturer, and CMOS foundries.
Cavendish has three product lines: all CMOS (which means it's standard process for the manufacturing), low power memory chips that can operate in extreme temperature and radiation ambients, and able to operate with standard voltages, which, the firm says, is one thing differentiating it from existing FLASH and EEPROM memories.
Read - Cavendish Kinetics Raises $15.5 Million in Second-Round Funding (press release)
Posted at 06:43 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
May 01, 2006
High Volumes Attract Investors to Ireland's Firecomms
Firecomms, a spinoff from the Tyndall Institute in Ireland, has raised €9.6M in a deal that brings in two new investors, Irish VC, ACT Venture Capital, and laser manufacturer, ALPS. Its early investor, Atlantic Bridge, also came back for this round.
Firecomms makes two kinds of optical components, both targeted at high-volume markets (consumer electroncis and automotive data comms), which it sells to OEMs. These include light emitting diodes and laser chips, known as a VCSELs.
The firm says that its LEDs are much faster than those on the market today, so they can be used for data communications and can replace copper cables in home and car networks, where glass fiber is too expensive to terminate, and copper is heavy and sensitive to electromagnetic interference. Unlike the alternatives, this architecture (based on plastic fiber optics) has a lower installed cost, is not sensitive to electromagnetic interference, is easy to terminate, and is lightweight.
Its VCSELs are targeted at home networks for transporting TV signals up to 50m from a set-top box to a flat screen, as well as for transporting data the short distance from portable PC and mobilephone chips to the LCD screen. Its solution is more robust, lower cost, and able to handle the high speeds now being demanded in these two market segments.
There have been plenty of investments in European VCSEL and LED startups but many struggled and failed to live up to their early potential because they didn't, or could not, (due to the limitations of there photonic components) target high-volume markets (to be fair many were targetting the telecomms sector which completely evaporated when the bubble burst) This one has clearly avoided these traps. With its new strategic investor and a nice amount of capital, we think that Firecomms has promise.
Read -Firecomms Announces a Funding Round of euro 9.6 Million (press release)
Posted at 06:59 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
April 06, 2006
Nangate's Danish Roots Attract Nordic VCs
Nangate, an electronic design automation (EDA) software developer, has raised $10M from Vaaketsfonden, IVS, and SEED Capital, all Nordic VCs.
Although the firm is now headquartered in Siilcon Valley, where sales and support are managed from, it has its roots and its operations in Copenhagen, as well as Moscow. Interestingly, the firm also has an advanced research division in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The firm's founders previously successfully built and sold another EDA startup, Exbit, which was acquired for $164M in 2001 by Vitesse Semiconductor. Nangate was founded in 2004.
Read- EDA Startup Nangate Raises $10M (press release)
Read - EDA startup Nangate secures $10M in VC funding (ee times)
Posted at 01:43 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
April 03, 2006
Infineon's DRAM biz now a fully owned subsidiary with a pricey corporate ID
As last week came to a close, Infineon announced that it is separating its DRAM memory business into a new firm called Qimonda, which supplies DRAM to PC and Server manufacturers. It will operate as a fully owned subsidiary of the German chip company.
We are wondering why Infineon didn't bring in an experienced private equity investor to do the carve out, and then take the firm public, because an IPO is explicitly stated as part of Qimonda's strategy. There is plenty of buyout money available in Germany and we think that buyout firms would have been quite interested. We're trying to find out more today.
We also note that corporate identity is writ large at Qimonda (see extended entry below).
Qimondo's new CEO Kin Wah Loh (r) is taking on a venture that had €2.9B in sales last year with a profit of €122 million (EBIT). On the left is Wolfgang Ziebart, Infineon's CEO who has been wielding a sharp knife on the chipmaker's "non-core" businesses..
Read - Infineon has accelerated its Memory carve-out
The a:c euro notes that the press release spent more space describing the multi-faceted meanings of the new company's name and logo design than it did on its financial werewithal and business plan.
Corporate ID writ larger than business potential.
The new brand of Qimonda The name and brand identity of Qimonda express the philosophy and personality of the new company, illustrating the vision and values that will drive it. “Qimonda” has universal qualities that work across the globe: “Qi” stands for breathing and flowing energy. In the West, where languages are largely based on Latin and have been widely influenced by English, the interpretation as “Key to the World” (key-monda) is intuitive. While purple, the primary colour of the new logo, stands for leadership, the secondary colours, the cursive typeface, the round and organic shape of the logo and its impulsively spreading shape all emphasize Qimonda’s values: being creative, passionate and fast. “Creativity is one of the key driving factors for us in order to be successful in our business”, explains Kin Wah Loh. “Passion is the spirit that runs through our company and being fast is what Qimonda will be all about in the dynamic memory market.”
Posted at 05:06 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
March 22, 2006
Asetek gets more cash to chill hot chips
Asetek, a Danish manufacturer of chip cooling systems, said today that it topped up its recently announced €4M venture round with an additional €2M in capital from KT Venture Group.
Asetek makes heat pipes or chip cooling systems. It is known among the Red Bull-slugging PC gamers and developers that use its high-end (read high-priced) bulkier products to prevent their overclocked central processing unit (CPU) from burning out.
The coffee mug-sized VapoChill unit on a motherboard.
But it now has a mass market product, the size of a coffee mug and the firm claims sales of a few thousand units a month via its Internet site.
The VCs invested because they believe that Asetek can keep shrinking the units so that vendors of silent, small form factor and home theater PCs will adopt the technology.
Like the name says, Hush Technologies, makes quite computer gear for the living room.
Competitors are also racing to reduce size, such as Zalman. And PC makers, such as Germany's Hush Technologies are also incorporating innovative heat sink technology.
KT Venture invests for KLA-Tencor, a major semiconductor equipment supplier. It said in statement that its knowledge of the industry indicates that there is a shift when it comes to cooling CPUs and that Asetek has "the cost-effective solution to this need".
In other words, the heat that chips produce is not being dealt with by the chip manufacturers and traditional fan/sink units cannot handle the thermal load (plus they’re noisy) therefore a plug in or add on device like Aseteks has a nice-sized opportunity.
Read - Asetek KT Venture Announcement (press release)
Posted at 01:07 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
March 15, 2006
Icera = soft radio chips +3G wireless -excess packaging
With third generation cellular and HSDPA network rollouts underway in the US and Europe, the market demand is emerging just as Icera is in a position to deliver the supporting chips to cellphone industry manufacturers.
As a result, Icera, which was founded in Bristol, has been able to close a $40M round, bringing the total VC funding to $82.5M since it was founded in 2002.
Unusually for a chip co, Icera has no pics of its chip, but it did have some nice photos.
Icera's founder, Stan Boland, is on his second chip startup with this one. His last, Element 14, a DSL (broadband over telephone lines) chip company, was acquired by Broadcom for $642 million.
Competitors include Qualcomm, Huawei, and Freescale Semiconductor. Its edge against the competition, the firm says, is a software-based radio modem on the chip that can be tweaked (software-defined radio aka SDR) if some parts of protocol changes (e.g. speed of throughput or frequencies) post-integration. And it claims a comparably small size due to the radio frequency chip and the processor being sandwiched in the same chip-package.
It brought on board new investor Amadeus, in addition to existing VCs. The investment suggests that Amadeus is making some progress on raising its new fund. We hear it has been fundraising for a few months now.
Read - HSDPA Network Rollouts (3G Organization)
Read - Icera adds a further $40m in funding (Icera PR)
Posted at 12:29 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
March 13, 2006
Wimax is hot –Wimax is not
Venture capital firms that have invested in Wimax chip companies might be getting nervous these days if they were hoping for an exit this year as some potential acquirers say they're not buying.
On the one hand market research firms, such as RNCOS from India, are bullish:
"WiMAX and other emerging high-speed wireless technologies will capture more than 42% of the wireless broadband business over the next few years, whilst 3G will have to content with less than 59% of the market in 2009."
And there is some market pull, with several operators in Europe tapping Wimax, while in the US Clearwire is deploying an “early version of Wimax”. Clearwire has raised some $1.1B in the past year for network investment, according to press reports.
But on the other hand, potential acquirers, such as Broadcom and Agere, are not showing much interest. Electronic News reporting from an industry conference last week provided some insight into the chip manufacturers’ attitudes:
“The markets for UWB and WiMAX are immature and our strategy is to engage in high volume markets … and the markets will be served by existing technologies. 802.11n -MIMO-enhanced WiFi - will be out before UWB, because it is compatible with 802.11 a, b and g.”
And Agere’s CEO was quoted as saying that WiMAX startups will never be able to gain the really lucrative customer wins.
“They’ll never have a tier one customer; they’ll never have a competitive cost-base, and they’ll never have a significant IP base.”
A lot of capital has been invested in Wimax silicon with exits still not visible.
Since Intel is the biggest proponent of Wimax, it is not surprising that its rivals are not jumping on the bandwagon. But we still wonder what the exit activity will be like for startups in the sector.
Some VC-backed Wimax and Wimax-related startups are listed here.
Sequans
Picochip (Recently brought in AT&T as a strategic investor in addition to VC)
Cambridge Broadband (Active in East Asian, its backhaul equipment supports Wimax, in addition to other wireless networking protocols)
Orthogon Systems (Sells Wimax compatible gear for backhaul application)
Alvarion (Products include Wimax gear targeted carriers, alternative telcos, mobile network operators, and private networks)
Read- Clearwire raises $360 million (Seattle Times)
Read- Wireless firms stand back as start-ups thrash it out
(Electronics Weekly)
Read- Wimax Forecast (RNCOS)
Posted at 07:53 AM | TrackBack | Permalink
February 14, 2006
$6M For France's EVE
French emulation startup EVE has closing a $6M C round of funding from existing investors Auriga Partners, 3i, CAPE , Siparex Ventures and Edmond de Rothschild Venture Capital.
The company has received $16.4M in three rounds of venture funding. EVE lays claim to have more than 35 customers — including 8 of the 10 largest semiconductor companies.
Read - Emulation startup gets $6 million in funding (EE Times)
Posted at 10:18 PM | TrackBack | Permalink
January 30, 2006
Intel still looking for the perfect EUV light source
Intel Capital invested an undisclosed amount in XTREME technologies GmbH, based in Göttingen, Germany to “accelerate” development of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light sources, which go into chip manufacturing equipment (lithography tools).
According to several articles in the EE Times over the past year or two, Intel needs beta EUV lithography tools soon if it wants to keep to its roadmap for next generation chip sizes.
XTREME technologies was founded in 2001 and is a spinoff of Jenoptik AG (a laser and microelectronics manufacturer and once the primary laser producer for the former Soviet bloc), which shares ownership of the startup with Japan’s Ushio.
Xtreme Technologies demonstrates that the smaller the integrated circuits, the bigger the laser
Intel is backing a number of startups in the EUV market. In 2004 it invested in Cymer (San Diego), which also makes EUV light sources and in 2005 it invested in Italy’s Media Lario, which makes the micro-mirrors required to focus the light beams.
There are a few others in the race that Intel Capital has not invested in yet: Japan's Gigaphoton Corp (also partly owned by Ushio), Energetiq Technology based in Woburn, MA and Philips Xtreme UV GmbH in Aachen, Germany
