ComVentures led the round, and existing investors Mission Ventures, The IPO Group, Agilent Technologies and Redpoint Ventures also participated. TelASIC will use the additional funds to ramp up volume production and bolster key organizational functions as it continues to grow.
Essentially, El Segundo, California-based TelASIC makes chips for base stations. Its chips and ICs are designed to make base stations more programmable to simplify the design of the systems, as well as to make them flexible enough to handle multiple standards.
The company points to growing numbers of mobile operators deploying third generation, or 3G, technologies to meet more demanding market requirements. It claims to offer the most power efficient and cost-effective solution for next generation wireless infrastructure equipment. Indeed, TelASIC’s technology accommodates a wide range of wireless protocols, such as W-CDMA, CDMA2000, WiMAX, and WiBRO, on a single platform.
The latest tranche of funding follows the $35m Series C investment back in October 2003. In January 2002, it raised $22.5m in a Series B funding round, which included an investment by IBM, which gained an equity stake in the company.
