picoChip secures $20.5 million in third round funding

SEP, Intel and Rothschild investment places the company as best funded WiMAX private company

picoChip, a leading supplier of wireless silicon solutions, announced that it has secured $20.5 million in its third round of funding. New lead investor Scottish Equity Partners is joined by Rothschild and Intel Capital, along with previous investors Pond Venture Partners and Atlas Venture. The new funding will be used to support the company’s growth in next-generation wireless silicon and software.

Guillaume d'Eyssautier, President and CEO of picoChip, commented, "We are very excited about the addition of our new strategic funding partners to our existing loyal investors. 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 efforts of providing customers with a flexible and upgradeable WiMAX solution."

The round, which brings total company funding to $41.5 million, is a significant boost for picoChip towards extending 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."

picoChip stands to benefit from large and growing market opportunities in wireless semiconductors. Research firm W R Hambrecht & Co recently described WiMAX as “one of the most exciting markets for semiconductors today” (WiMAX: The next era in Broadband access, April 05).

Founded in 2000, picoChip has developed the world’s highest performance DSP tuned for wireless, and is a supplier of complete reference designs for WiMAX and HSDPA. picoChip technology is being used by Intel in its Glenfield board, which is sold for use in WiMAX basestations, and Airspan. Airspan has recently won WiMAX contracts from Marconi and Fujitsu. In addition, picoChip has a number of strategic customers and partners for both WiMAX and 3G, including Tier One manufacturers, and is fast becoming the industry standard for next-generation wireless infrastructure. The company recently won a place in this year’s prestigious “Fierce 15”, recognising the fifteen most significant private companies in the wireless area.