Semiconductor manufacturer Spectra7 Microsystems has made a first close on its latest round of $11m from Canadian venture firms Celtic House Venture Partners (CHVP), Ventures West (VW), and EdgeStone Capital Partners (ESCP).
The Canada-based company has said that the funding will be used to accelerate product development, and to bring new consumer electronics to market. The funds will also be used for the integration of its merger with semiconductor manufacturer Fresco Microship, Ireland-based tech company RedMere Technology, and Chrysalis Capital VIII Corporation (CC8C).
Spectra7 was created last month after the announcement of a merger between Fresco, RedMere, and Chrysalis. CC8C is a capital pool company owned by the Chrysalis Capital Group that will be joining with Fresco and RedMere with an eye to trade Spectra7 publicly on the TSX Venture Exchange by October.
ESCP and CHVP are previous investors in RedMere, participating in all three previous venture rounds for the company and raising $26.1m in total venture funding. Enterprise Ireland and Enterprise Equity Limited joined ESCP and CHVP in both a $7m venture round in November 2008 and a $5.6m Series B round in December 2009. ESCP and CHVP were the sole participants in a previous venture round in April 2007 that raised $13.5m.
CHVP worked with VW in raising $39m of venture funding for Fresco over three rounds. The two participated in a $14.7m Series A round in July 2005, raised $14.3m Series B funding in January 2008, and invested a further $10m in a venture round from October 2009. Fresco also had an additional $9m Series C funding from Ontario Venture Capital Fund.
“We’re delighted this first round of funding was met with such enthusiasm,” said RedMere and Spectra7 CEO Tony Stelliga in a statement.
He added: “The oversubscription is a strong show of support from existing investors and validates our vision of delivering low cost, high bandwidth, agile semiconductor devices for the mobile internet market. The completion of this financing allows us to focus on key value creating milestones as we move closer to being publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange.”
Spectra7 will be primarily focussed on using their collective resource pool to deliver products that enable greater bandwidth for mobile infrastructure and consumer products.