Monday, August 18, 2008

BitWave Semiconductor secures $10.2M in Series B

By Mass High Tech Staff

As previously reported, Lowell-based chip maker BitWave Semiconductor Inc. has closed on $10.2 million in Series B funding, the company announced today.

The financing was provided by BitWave’s existing investors, including Boston’s TVM Capital, Chicago’s Apex Venture Partners and Virginia’s ECentury Capital. According to a company statement, the funding will be used to realize commercialization of BitWave’s BW1102 Softransceiver, a programmable chip aimed at wireless handsets and femtocells, which is expected to move into full volume production during the fourth quarter of 2008.

The funding also marks the second infusion of cash the company has received this year, following a $5 million round received in January. Officials would not disclose the series of that funding. The company received its first round in 2005, totaling $13 million.

BitWave’s technology is aimed at allowing wireless device makers to build products that can work on any wireless mode, from GSM, EDGE and W-CDMA to CDMA2K, 802.11a/b/g and its newest iteration, 802.11n. The company provides a chip that can be programmed to handle any of the protocols, or change them, after the device has been built. The idea, said BitWave co-founder and chief marketing officer Russell Cyr during a January interview, is to create one chip for a multimode world.

Executives claim the product is the first of its kind in the industry.

BitWave was founded in 2003 by Cyr, a former executive at semiconductor developer Global Communication Devices Inc., and CTO Geoffrey Dawe, former CEO and co-founder with Cyr of Global Communications. CEO Mike Farese, formerly of Palm Inc., was appointed last fall, while the company added vice president of business development David Donovan, formerly of Analog Devices Inc., this past April.