SAN DIEGO-Semiconductor company Sequoia Communications led the fund raising pack last week with $15 million in its fourth round of financing, while ringtone company Improvista Interactive Music Inc. and wireless credit card processing company Way Systems Inc. also announced new funds.
Sequoia sells technology that integrates different modes using a common architecture on a single chip, which the company said allows communications across standards including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, global positioning system, wireless local area network and more. Gabriel Ventures led its fourth round of funding, and Nokia Venture Partners, Tallwood Venture Capital, Cadence Design Systems and Huntington Ventures also participated.
“We firmly believe that all wireless terminals will be `multi-mode’ going forward, combining multiple standards like GSM, EDGE and W-CDMA with systems like WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS and others,” said Dave Shepard, Sequoia’s chief executive officer. “Sequoia Communications has taken a leadership role in creating an RF transceiver architecture that can integrate any combination of these modes in less than half the time of those using conventional architectures. This additional capital will accelerate the rollout of Sequoia Communications’ revolutionary products and will assist in global expansion.”
For its part, Improvista announced it raised $1.5 million in its second round of financing. Infocom America Inc. led the round, and Orix Capital Corp., Minato Miriai Capital Corp. and Tsunami Network Partners Corp. also participated.
Improvista’s patented Remix4u technology allows consumers to sample, remix, purchase and download personalized, polyphonic ringtones for their mobile phones. The company currently has agreements with U.S. carriers AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Midwest Wireless, along with all three Japanese cellular carriers, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Vodafone K.K. and KDDI Corp.
Finally, Way Systems said it secured an undisclosed amount of investment funding from George Wallner, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of electronic payment company Hypercom. Wallner’s investment follows other investments from the likes of Visa International, Transaction Network Services and Bill Melton, founder of VeriFone.
