picoChip secures extra $20million equity funding

The supplier of semiconductors and software for femtocells, also announced that it has now sold 1million chips sold and is on track to achieve over 50% sequential revenue growth this calendar quarter. The growth in demand for the company's products is said to be driven by the picoXcell product range which is being used to power the global deployments of 3G femtocells. picoChip is the only company today shipping large volumes of femtocell silicon, with 25 femtocell customers and products supporting the HSPA+, LTE and TD-SCDMA cellular standards. "As we execute against our plan we have raised additional equity funding that will set the company on an even steeper growth curve," said Nigel Toon, ceo of picoChip. "A major shift is happening in the cellular market, creating big opportunities for picoChip. With our field-proven technology, volume shipments and fast revenue growth, this investment allows us to move aggressively to grasp those opportunities." As part of its growth plans, picoChip is adding engineers at its development centers in Bath and Beijing and will move to a new headquarters in Bath. The plans also include accelerated product development in key areas such as LTE, HSPA+ and self-organising networks. picoChip's existing investors Atlas Venture, Highland Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Pond Ventures, Rothschild, Samsung, and Scottish Equity Partners all participated. "The rapid take-up of smartphones and other always-connected devices, the huge growth in data traffic on 3G HSPA networks and the transition to LTE and 4G are disruptive changes for the cellular market," added Toon. "Technology advances like 'flat architecture' and 'small cell' will mean a radical shake-up in the established landscape."