picoChip secures new VC fans and $20.5 million R3 funding

picoChip, a leading fabless semiconductor contender for the WiMax market, has secured $20.5 million R3 funding from new investors. This includes Scottish Equity Partners, hoping to add picoChip to its list of high profile IPOs, including Wolfson Microelectronics (which achieved an IPO valuation of £250 million), and Bluetooth specialist CSR, which achieved a similar valuation of approximately £240 million. Other investor includes Rothschild – a Paris-based venture capital fund backed by leading European institutional investors – and Intel Capital, along with existing investors Pond Venture Partners and Atlas Venture. The new funding will be used to develop and support the company’s growth in next-generation wireless silicon and software.

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Guillaume d'Eyssautier, president and CEO of picoChip, commented, “The quality of our backers is an endorsement of our leading position in WiMAX. We will use this funding to expand on picoChip’s success in WiMAX and deliver products for WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and other wireless markets.”

Stuart Paterson, a director in SEP’s information technology group, said, “We are delighted to be investing in an industry leader such as picoChip. SEP has had a track record of successful investments in stellar companies such as Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) and Wolfson; we are confident that picoChip will follow the same model of success.”

“Intel clearly believes in ubiquitous broadband wireless communications, with the appropriate standards-based technology fitting the need,” said Sriram Viswanathan, managing director of Intel Capital’s mobility initiative. picoChip’s silicon is flexible enough to address multiple wireless standards, including WiMAX, and support operator’s requirements for offering voice, video data and services, and mobility. “We are pleased to be investing in picoChip to support their efforts of providing customers with a flexible and upgradeable WiMAX solution.”

The round, which brings the total company funding to $41.5 million, is a significant boost for picoChip to extend its leadership as a wireless semiconductor vendor. d’Eyssautier concludes, “This funding, along with our major design wins and rapidly growing revenue, will take us comfortably to the point of profitability and position us well for success.”

Founded in 2000, picoChip has developed a complete reference design for WiMAX. picoChip technology is being used by Intel in its basestation designs, and by Airspan, which has won WiMAX contracts from Ericsson, Marconi and Fujitsu. The company has a number of key strategic customers and partners for both WiMAX and 3G.

© Chilli Publishing Ltd 2005

29JUN2005