Japan-based audio system developer Trigence Semiconductor has completed a series C round of undisclosed size featuring Intel Capital, chipmaker Intel’s corporate venturing arm, increasing its total funding to more than $20m.
Miyako Capital, a venture capital affiliate of Kyoto University, led the round, which included semiconductor technology producer Supreme Electronics; Innovations and Future Creation, a VC firm affiliated with Tokyo Institute of Technology; and undisclosed existing investors.
Spun off from Hosei University in 2006, Trigence has created a digital audio system that is used in electronic devices such as computers, headphones, smart speakers and in-car sound systems.
Intel Capital invested an undisclosed amount in the company in a 2012 deal that represented Trigence’s first external funding. It reportedly secured up to $4.7m from public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) two years later.
However, Trigence did not include INCJ in a list of investors disclosed in a statement that did identify coil-winding machine producer Nittoku Engineering and electronics manufacturer TDK Corporation as earlier backers.
Anthony Lin, Intel Capital’s managing director of Greater Asia and Europe, said: “Intel Capital is committed to investing in innovative companies like Trigence that are creating the technologies inside smart and connected devices to power data explosion.”