Jamesyang --
Part of this task turned out to be easier than I'd have imagined, as
we've managed to assemble links to at least 50 venture-capital
fundings of U.S. semiconductor companies so far in 2003. For Europe,
a fairly extensive search turns up only about 9 reports of investments
in semiconductor firms.
There is more complete data available from several trade groups or
industry newsletters for a fee.
Being located in Silicon Valley, The San Jose Mercury News does an
excellent job of tracking venture capital funding.
In the first quarter of 2003, they list 21 semiconductor firms as
receiving VC funding. The charts show the amount of funding and
source -- but it will take a check of each company's website to see
what information is available on uses of funds:
San Jose Mercury News
Venture Capital Funding, 1Q 2003 (May 19, 2003)
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/financial_markets/5897868.htm
There were 10 more in Q2, 2003:
San Jose Mercury News
Venture Capital Funding, 1Q 2003 (August 15, 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/mercurynews/business/6542997.htm
The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) studies indicate that
there were 25 more VC fundings in Q3, 2003 but there doesn't seem to
be a complete list that is publicly available yet.
Using the following Google search strategy you'll develop a large list
of public announcements on VC funding:
"venture capital" + funding + semiconductors + 2003
For example, missing from the San Jose Mercury News are these significant fundings:
SiGe Semiconductor (Q1)
Ottawa, Canada
$42.8 million
SCP Global Technologies (Q1)
Boise, ID
Not available
Andigilog (Q3)
Chandler, AZ
$4.2 million
Cicada Semiconductor (Q3)
Austin, TX
$15M
Engim (Q3)
Acton, MA
$18.5 million
A trade association, the Fabless Semiconductor Association, does a
quarter news release in which it summarizes VC funding for
semiconductor companies and it notes that 35 deals worth $395 million
were closed in Q3:
FSA
"Q3 Fabless Funding Results" (Oct. 15, 2003)
http://www.fsa.org/news/article.asp?article=2003/1015
Members of the association can receive copies of the detailed report.
As a researcher, you may be able to convince an association member to
assist with the task of finding European semiconductor firms.
Another source of reports on venture funding is the online newsletter,
VentureReport.net. Some recent information is available at no charge
and they have a fee-based service for more details. Note that there
are about 15 U.S. semiconductor companies which raised funding during
Q4 that you can add to the list above:
http://www.venturereporter.net
European investments also can be tracked using a refined Google search strategy:
"venture capital" + funding + semiconductor + 2003 + Europe
Using that search strategy and reviewing about two dozen pages with
more than 200 links, we find these reports of VC funding of
semiconductor companies in Europe:
Chipvision Design Systems AG (Q2)
Oldenburg, Germany
Amount not stated
Europe Technologies (Q4)
France
$10.6 million
Artimi (Q4)
U.K.
Not available
Frontier Silicon (Q4)
U.K.
Not available
picoChip (Q4)
U.K.
$17 million
Phyworks (Q4)
U.K.
$13.3 million
Alphamosaic (Q3)
Cambridge, U.K.
$12 million
CriticalBlue (Q4)
Scotland
$2 million
Icera Semiconductor (Q1)
Bristol, U.K.
$10 million
For the most-recent reports of VC funding, it's also wise to use
Google News and similar search terms as above:
http://news.google.com/
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
Request for Answer Clarification by
jamesyang69-ga
on
13 Nov 2003 21:49 PST
Hi omnivorous,
Thanks for the information, that would help very much. I know that
finding the reasons for funding is not easy, but do try, as that info
is very important, event if it is not too detail.
-for example US5Million raised for marketing, engineering, etc
Do try also for valuation, or %equity, as that would help. I know this
is not easy to get, however.
Summary, - try your very best, just as a challenge. your previous
anwsers help very much, and would already warrant your money. thanks..
|
Clarification of Answer by
omnivorous-ga
on
14 Nov 2003 06:04 PST
Jamesyang --
I went back to the stories on European venture capital funding first,
then through a sample of the more than 50 American companies.
Recognize that there's no obligation for public reporting of funding
or reasons for funding, as is required for public companies in an SEC
registration statement. Thus, many funding statements -- particularly
in Europe -- don't even include the amounts raised. You probably see
more public information in the U.S. because venture funds often have
participants from public companies and from pension funds with
reporting requirements.
Rather, funding releases are made to increase the visibility of both
the company and the venture funds in the business and financial
community.
Here's what I found with respect to statements:
EUROPEAN SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES
-------------------------------------------------------------
Chipvision Design: The quintessential terse statement: "The company
also announced it recently secured funding from German-based venture
capitalists, Target Partners and BayTech Venture Capital."
Europe Technologies: no use given
Artimi: The company didn't have anything but from Microwave Engineering Online:
http://www.mwee.com/mwee_news/OEG20031027S0007
"The funds will be used to speed development of Artimi's low- power
UWB transceivers with multiple interfaces and are capable of
delivering data at up to 500 Mbit/s at distances of up to 30 meters
with precision location capability. Artimi said its solution is based
on a patent pending mesh wireless technology. "
Frontier Silicon: no announcement from the company of use (or even of
amount), but Alta Berkeley Venture Partners' release puts the amount
at $24 million
picoChip: Pond Ventures says investment is "to further develop and
commercialise the company?s range of hardware and software reference
designs for wireless infrastructure." This investment was a
second-round funding by Pond.
Phyworks: One of the rare company press releases with any information,
Phyworks' says that funding is to "further its develop its range of
optical networking integrated circuits and to accelerate its sales and
marketing activities."
http://www.phyworks-ic.com/Protected/rel29903.pdf
Alphamosaic: though the company says nothing about uses of funds,
investor Doughty Hanson & Co. says it's "to further fund the expansion
of the product portfolio and its worldwide operations."
CritcalBlue: "This allows the Company to complete the product
development and to launch Cascade onto the global market,? commented
David Stewart, CEO.
Icera Semiconductor: no use of funding indicated.
AMERICAN SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES
---------------------------------------------------------------
I sampled the Q2 funding group listed by the San Jose Mercury News.
You may wish to add the 40+ other companies using the Google search
strategy below. Here's what we found for this group of 11:
Bermai: Bruce Sanguinetti, president and CEO of Bermai said "The
additional funds received will allow Bermai to expand its global
marketing and sales efforts as we prepare to meet our original goal to
ship production chips by the end of this year."
http://www.bermai.com/news/072202_fundinga+.html
Cavium Networks: no use given
CiraNova: " CiraNova will utilize the funding to expand its internal
product development and sales teams, and to further its customer
engagements throughout the world."
http://www.ciranova.com/ciranova/docRoot/press3.jsp
Cooligy: no use given
Cradle Technologies: no use given:
http://www.cradle.com/ftp/pub/press/6_23_03.pdf
FlexLogics: no use given
Optichron: According to the San Francisco Business Journal, "The
company said it plans to use the funding for research and
development."
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/07/21/daily23.html
Pixim: Proceeds are "being used to support the development, production
and customer support for Pixim?s breakthrough Digital Pixel System?
(DPS)."
http://www.pixim.com/press/prel16042003.phtml
Rosum: "To finance development of location-based technology."
http://www.rosum.com/RosumInvestmentPressRelease.pdf
Silicon Optics: The company (which raised two rounds of financing so
far in 2003, says about the March round, "Silicon Optix will utilize
this round of capital to complete the development and market launch of
its next generation IC as well as marketing activities for the
AnyPlace and eWARP product lines targeted at the business, home front
projection, thin RPTV home theater and security/surveillance markets.
To further support the company?s growth, Silicon Optix will expand its
engineering, sales and marketing teams.
http://www.siliconoptix.com/about/press_031803.shtml
Theta Microelectronics: no use given
The Google search strategy uses the following:
"company name" + funding
Even though a company may not discuss its use of funds in their press
release, sometimes industry press or the VC partner will have intended
uses.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
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