News

12 March 2010

 

SiBEAM secures $36.5m in Series D funding

Fabless semiconductor firm SiBEAM Inc of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, which develops millimeter-wave (mmWave) solutions and high-speed wireless communications platforms, has closed $36.5m in Series D funding led by Foundation Capital and joined by all of SiBEAM's original investors including US Ventures Partners (USVP) and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as well as new investors Lux Capital and Hatteras Funds. Best Buy Inc and Cisco have also contributed strategic equity investments to support SiBEAM’s growth and propel its second-generation 60GHz wireless high-definition chipsets into the mainstream consumer electronics market, as well as fund to future projects for personal computing and mobile devices.

Founded in 2004, SiBEAM claims to be the first firm to build 60GHz chipsets using CMOS silicon technology. With technology designed for consumer electronics manufacturers, PC manufacturers, network infrastructure providers and others to incorporate into their next-generation product lines for wireless communications, the first application is based on the WirelessHD standard.

As a founding member of the WirelessHD Consortium (which includes 50 leading firms in the consumer electronics and personal computing industries), SiBEAM is aiming to drive the architecture and semiconductor implementation for the distribution and presentation of high-definition content in the consumer electronics and personal computing markets, and claims that its OmniLink60 Technology is the first WirelessHD-based solution capable of streaming lossless, uncompressed high-definition video, audio and data.

“SiBEAM continues to deliver on its promise to bring high-quality, lossless wireless high-definition capabilities to the A/V home entertainment market,” says Foundation Capital’s general partner Adam Grosser. “Their team has executed well on its plans and has brought in nearly all leading CE [consumer electronics] manufacturers as customers through its work with the growing WirelessHD Consortium,” he adds. “This market adoption further supports our confidence in SiBEAM’s technology and the team's capabilities to drive and solidify the company's leadership in the exciting and high-growth wireless connectivity market.”

SiBEAM’s 60GHz semiconductor solutions with OmniLink60 Technology have won awards including (most recently) a 2010 Design Vision award in the semiconductor components category. The second generation of SiBEAM’s WirelessHD chipsets — brought into mass production earlier this year — represents the firm’s move into mass-market applications with low-cost, low-power functionality. The latest chipsets also support advanced features demanded by the current consumer electronics market including 3D, HDCP and DTCP content protection that can be designed into A/V receivers, home theater-in-a-box systems, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media center PCs, and consumer laptops. “SiBEAM has become the indispensable technology innovator in wireless home networking,” reckons Lux Capital co-founder & managing partner Peter Hebert.

“This round of financing is a significant milestone for SiBEAM as it demonstrates the continued growth of our business and potential for significant investment return, even in a challenging economy,” says the firm’s president & CEO John LeMoncheck. “With these funds, we can grow our business toward profitability in the burgeoning wireless A/V market,” he adds. “SiBEAM continues to receive extensive interest from CE and PC manufacturers worldwide that are eager to integrate simple, cost-effective and high-quality wireless streaming capability into their products.”

SiBEAM says that it is hence currently expanding global sales and manufacturing operations to support its increased growth rate and customer demand for wireless A/V connectivity solutions.

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