UK - Fabless semiconductor specialist secures $40m

Guy
15 March 2006

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Amadeus Capital Partners, the technology investor, has led a $40m Series C investment in Icera Inc., a fabless semiconductor company with offices in the UK, France and Japan, which has developed the first wireless soft modem for next generation mobile phones and wireless devices. Previous investors Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners and Atlas Venture have also participated in this round.

Icera, founded in 2002, has developed a new class of generic wireless processor, DXP, and advanced wireless soft modem technology that will support high performance HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), current wireless standards (UMTS, GSM, EDGE and WCDMA) and the integration of future standards without hardware change. The technology provides high performance and flexibility at extremely low power, allowing OEMs to create feature combinations that differentiate their offerings in the delivery of convergent devices to consumers and avoid using the current standard platforms. Product testing is in progress with many top tier suppliers.

The Icera team is led by president and CEO Stan Boland, whom Amadeus previously backed at Element-14, a Cambridge-based developer of high port density, low power DSL chipsets, acquired by Broadcom for some $600m. Icera’s world class semiconductor and wireless team includes Nigel Toon, VP marketing (previously VP/GM Altera Europe), Simon Knowles, VP silicon design (previously Broadcom, Element14, ST Microelectronics) and Steve Allpress, VP wireless systems (previously Broadcom, Bell Labs), Peter Hughes, VP silicon operations (previously Broadcom, Element14, ST Microelectronics) and Rick Dingle, VP platforms (previously CTO Siemens Mobile, Ericsson).