US-based semiconductor technology developer Transphorm completed a reverse merger with shell company Peninsula Acquisition on Tuesday, also raising $21.5m in a private placement co-led by automotive component supplier Marelli.
The funding round was co-led by an unnamed affiliate of private equity firm KKR and undisclosed new and existing investors.
Spun out of University of California, Santa Barbara in 2007, Transphorm has developed gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors it claims can convert power with a higher efficiency than silicon-based systems while being produced at a smaller size.
The technology has applications in power supplies for infrastructure such as data centres and chargers for electric vehicles, and it also facilitates fast charging in consumer devices.
Following the reverse merger with publicly-listed Peninsula, Transphorm has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former, which in turn rebranded to Transphorm and will carry on the existing semiconductor business.
Peninsula was founded in 2007 as a blank-check company, defined by US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission as an entity issuing penny stock without a business plan and with the sole purpose of concluding a merger and acquisition deal.
Transphorm has now raised approximately $250m, according to press releases and securities filings. It picked up $15m in funding from robotic automation technology producer Yaskawa Electric in 2017, following a $70m round led by KKR two years earlier.
The company received $35m in a 2012 series E round co-led by semiconductor producer Nihon Inter Electronics and public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.
The series E round included GV, a subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, as well as Kleiner Perkins (then Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), Foundation Capital, Quantum Strategic Partners, Lux Capital and Bright Capital.
