Bright Capital, the $350m corporate venturing unit of Russia-based conglomerate Ru-Com, has led a $17.6m round for SuVolta, a US-based developer of integrated circuits designed to cut chip power consumption by at least half.
Alongside Bright Capital in the round were venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), August Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Northgate Capital and DAG Ventures.
SuVolta, formerly known as DSM Solutions, emerged from stealth in June having over the five previous years raised $22m in May 2010, $3m in December 2009, $16.5m in 2007 and $6m in 2006, according to regulatory filings.
At the International Electron Devices Meeting last month in US capital Washington DC, SuVolta along with its development partner and licensee, Fujitsu Semiconductor, showed its ultra-low-voltage operation of SRAM (static random access memory) blocks down to 0.425V.
John Doerr, partner at KPCB and whose colleague Bill Joy (co-founder of chip maker Intel) is on SuVolta’s board, said: "SuVolta’s revolutionary PowerShrink transistor is a stunning and disruptive innovation, a true game-changer. It solves the semiconductor industry’s greatest challenge – power – without requiring billions of dollars investment in new fab facilities and chip designs."
Doerr has in the past week also been an investor in Renmatix alongside Bright Capital, which has done 11 deals in the past year, including Genomatica, Alta Devices and CardioDx.
Another of the KPCB and Bright Capital joint portfolio companies is Solidia Technologies, which emerged from stealth in October after $29m in investment and making building materials using less energy and by capturing carbon dioxide licensed to Italy-based manufacturer Simec.
Bright Capital has also co-invested with DAG and top tier VC firm Sequoia Capital in lighting company Luxim and the stealth solar panel maker Alion, formerly known as SunPrint. Ru-Com’s chairman, Mikhail Abyzov, is a director of Alion, which raised $5m in May, while Luxim previously raised $12m in April 2009’s series C round following $60m in prior funding.
Bright has a dozen people in its investment team, which is led by Boris Ryabov and Mikhail Chuchkevich, and a partnership with TomorrowVentures, the investment vehicle for Google chairman Eric Schmidt. Chuchkevich, who joined last year from state-backed venture peer Rusnano, said: "We have done 11 deals last year and 10 of those with the same level of top tier consortium [to SuVolta]."
Bright’s other deals include Flodesign Wind Turbine, which raised $34.5m in its January 2010 series B round, and CTC Cable.