CPE et al. invest $20m in Nujira

Ellie Pullen
03 April 2014

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A syndicate of existing investors including Climate Change Capital Private Equity (CPE) and Amadeus Capital Partners has injected $20m into UK fabless semiconductor company Nujira.

The consortium comprises CPE, Amadeus, the Environmental Technologies Fund, SAM Private Equity, NES Partners and Investec, as well as high-net-worth individuals.

The fresh capital will be used by Nujira to bolster production of its Coolteq chips, as well as support other product development efforts.

The company will also soon be opening a new design centre in Santa Clara, California.

Previous funding
Nujira has a long history with venture capital. The company first received funding in November 2003, securing $850,000 from Amadeus and NW Brown Ventures.

This was followed by a $7.75m funding round in August 2005, with the capital contributed by 3i and Amadeus.

The two investors then returned in January 2007 for Nujira's $9.8m series-B round alongside NW Brown, Cambridge Capital Group and Cambridge Angels, according to unquote" data.

In September 2008, new investor BankInvest led an $18m round for Nujira, with previous backers Amadeus, 3i, Cambridge Capital and Cambridge Angels returning for the round.

A year later, the Environmental Technologies Fund led a £10m series-D round for Nujira alongside Amadeus, 3i, BankInvest and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, according to unquote" data.

Within the same month, 3i sold 29 companies from its venture portfolio – including Nujira – to Coller Capital, HarbourVest Partners and DFJ Esprit in a £130m secondaries deal. The portfolio was to be managed by a new DFJ division, Encore Ventures, according to unquote" data. A synthetic secondaries vehicle, Encore Ventures I, was established to house the portfolio.

In May 2011, CPE entered Nujira's shareholding by leading a £10m funding round for the company and contributing £6m to the total. Amadeus, BankInvest and the Environmental Technologies Fund also took part in the round.

Nujira's most recent funding round prior to this one took place in September 2012, when SAM injected $12m into the business.

Company
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Cambridge, Nujira develops envelope tracking technology, designed to improve the energy efficiency and performance of 4G smartphones and other wireless devices.

The company expects its Coolteq chip range to become a standard component of 4G smartphones this year and claims it is currently in talks with all major smartphone chipset vendors.

Nujira currently employs 60 staff.

People
Tim Haynes is the CEO of Nujira.