Wavesat Announces $8 Million Financing Round: Leading Fabless Semiconductor Company Ready to Launch WiMAX Chipset for Broadband Wireless Market
MONTREAL—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 4, 2004—
Wavesat Inc., a developer of OFDM Broadband Wireless
(BW) silicon solutions, today announced the successful completion of
an $8 million financing round from both new and existing investors.
This additional funding will accelerate the company's marketing and
sales effort in support of its soon to be released WiMAX DM256 chip
and provide the necessary resources to continue development work
towards Mobile IEEE 802.16e silicon solutions. Wavesat future chips
will be backward compatible with its DM256.
This round attracted significant investment from a major
international investor, Taiwan-based Pac-Link Management Corp., as
well as from existing investors: Skypoint Capital Corporation, BDC
Venture Capital, Innovatech Montreal, Monet Capital and Sunsino
Ventures Group.
President and CEO Michel Guay notes, "We're focused on bringing
our first WiMAX chipset to market ahead of our competitors, allowing
our customers to be first to market with their WiMAX systems enabling
them to seize early market share. This funding will help us to quickly
move in that direction, capitalizing on the full potential of our
extensive research and development effort. This financing represents
an important validation of our leadership: over the last four years,
we have successfully transformed our comprehensive knowledge of the
OFDM technology and IEEE 802.16 standards into a series of chip
designs for the next generation of BW equipment."
Commenting on his decision to make a new investment in Wavesat,
Bill Shelander, Managing Director, Pac-Link Management Corp., stated,
"We are most impressed with their technological leadership in WiMAX,
the value proposition they bring to the BW market and especially the
strong management team. They are well positioned to compete
effectively and realize dramatic growth over the next few years with
the expansion of broadband wireless applications for businesses and
home users."
Wavesat will aggressively continue the development of WiMAX
chipsets and Subscriber Unit MAC software. Based on strong
partnerships in North America and Taiwan, Wavesat will also offer
complete Base Station and Subscriber Unit reference designs starting
in Fall 2004 with a clear evolution towards 802.16e. This product road
map will allow system manufacturers and operators to deploy WiMAX
fixed wireless network now and transition smoothly to WiMAX 802.16e
mobility technology in the future.
About Pac-Link Management Corp.
Established in 1998, Pac-Link Management Corp. has a management
team with broad experience, knowledge, and extended business
relationships in Asia and North America, which enable it to add value
to its portfolio companies with multi-dimensional services of
strategy, management, finance, investment, networking, etc. Pac-Link
Management Corp. helps portfolio companies grow rapidly and
consequently bring fund investors significant rewards. Pac-Link
Management Corp. has managed six venture capital funds with
capitalization of up to NT $7 billion and targets investment
activities in semiconductor, photonics, telecommunication, network,
software and biotech industries.
About BDC Venture Capital
BDC Venture Capital is a major venture capital investor in Canada,
active at every stage of a company's development cycle, from seed
through expansion, with a focus on technology-based businesses that
have high growth potential and that are positioned to become dominant
players in their markets. BDC Venture Capital has been involved in
venture capital since 1975 and has to date invested in more than 400
different companies. It currently manages approximately $500 million
in venture capital assets invested in the areas of Life Sciences,
Telecommunications, Information Technology, Advanced Technologies and
Funds Investments.
About Innovatech Montreal
Managing a venture-capital investment fund of $350 million,
Innovatech Montreal specializes in technological innovation - from
start-up to success. The organization sets itself apart by only
financing technological innovations at the start-up or technology
stage. Innovatech Montreal focuses its efforts on several dynamic
industries, namely, health sciences, information technology, advanced
technologies and telecommunications. Innovatech Montreal is an
equity-based company whose shares are held by the Government of
Quebec.
About Skypoint Capital Corporation
Founded in 1998, Skypoint targets the business opportunities and
"disruptive" technologies that will become the building blocks for the
next generation of telecommunications. Skypoint venture capital funds
provide early-stage equity to new or growing businesses with the
potential to become major enterprises in telecommunications and
information technology. Our expertise, dedicated management and
ability to recognize ideas with promise help maximize the likelihood
of success.
About Monet Capital
Monet Capital is a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm
focused on startups and emerging growth companies in information
technology and in the healthcare sector. Monet Capital covers a full
spectrum of investments from startup to late stage investment. Our
mission is to actively seek out startup companies that have
exceptional values and that will be positioned to become tomorrow's
global leaders. Founded in 2000, Monet Capital draws on a worldwide
network of talent and resources.
About Sunsino Ventures Group
Sunsino Development Associate Inc. ("Sunsino") was launched in
1994, with the primary objective of rendering support to small and
medium enterprises (SME) in terms of financing advisory, funding
requirement, and management consultation. To date, Sunsino, renamed as
"Sunsino Ventures Group," has made investments in over 100 companies
in Taiwan, Canada and the USA, exceeding US $100 million under the
management of seven funds.
About Wavesat
Founded in 1993, Wavesat Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company
focused on the development and supply of OFDM modem chips for WiMAX
compliant systems. Wavesat is headquartered in Montreal, Canada where
it conducts research and development activities. Wavesat is a
privately held company. Key investors include Skypoint Capital
Corporation, BDC Venture Capital, Innovatech Montreal, Pac-Link
Management Corp., Monet Capital and Sunsino Ventures Group.
Wavesat is a principal member of the WiMAX (World Interoperability
for Microwave Access) Forum, a nonprofit corporation formed to certify
the compatibility and interoperability of Broadband Wireless devices
conforming to the 802.16a/d wireless MAN and ETSI HiperMAN
specifications and to help accelerate the introduction of these
devices into the marketplace.
For additional information about Wavesat, please visit the
company's web site at www.wavesat.com.
Contact:
Wavesat Inc.
Mark Netto
Director, Finance
(514) 684-0200, ext. 304
mnetto@wavesat.com
OR
Capital-Image Inc.
Yvon Desautels
(514) 739-1188, ext. 22
ydesautels@capital-image.com
