The Dublin investor that bankrolled Movidius is pumping millions into another Irish chipmaker
Decawave has just secured $30 million from a mix of Irish and Chinese funds.
DUBLIN-BASED CHIPMAKER DECAWAVE has secured a $30 million round of funding and announced plans to hire 100 new staff.
Founded in 2007 by Ciaran Connell and Michael McLaughlin, DecaWave has developed chips that can help devices be accurately tracked.
The company’s tech has been mainly used by firms developing products for the internet of things – a term used to describe a system that allows everyday objects to be connected to the web and controlled remotely.
The latest round of investment into DecaWave has brought total funding in the company to $60 million.
The significant round of investment was led by Atlantic Bridge, the Dublin-based VC firm which previously backed Irish fabless chipmaker Movidius, which was acquired by Intel for over €300 million.
Other contributors to the round included the China Ireland Growth Technology Fund, which is partly managed by Atlantic Bridge, Irish-based investment firm ACT Venture Capital and Chinese fund ZZ Ventures.
The company stated that the funding will be used to develop DecaWave’s second-generation chip device for use in the automotive industry. The cash will also be put towards an expansion in the Chinese market.
DecaWave added that it will create 100 new posts across its operations worldwide as part of the expansion, which will bring its total headcount to around 150.
The new jobs created at the company will be a mix of engineering, research and development and sales roles.
Traction
The company, which recently opened offices in Silicon Valley, already has a presence in China – it also has satellite offices in France and South Korea.
The new DecaWave chip to be developed with the latest funding round will be a follow-up to the company’s flagship DW1000 chip.
DecaWave received significant traction in the market for its first chip – selling four million units to date – with more than 3,000 customers using the technology in robotics and connected homes products.
The firm’s latest accounts, covering the 2016 financial year, show it had accumulated losses at that stage of more than €31 million.
