Synad raises $20.7 million second round funding

Investee Company – Synad Technologies Ltd (UK)

Investee Company Business Type – Develops fabless chip technology focused on wireless networking

Type of Financing – Early stage

Equity Providers – Alta Berkeley, Alta Partners, Celtic House Investment Partners, nCoTec, Rendex Partners

Equity Leader (Individual) – Khaled Nasr, Alta Partners

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/A

Equity Amount – $20.7 million

Total Deal Value – $20.7 million

Other Advisors – N/A

Comments – UK-based Synad, a fabless chip start-up, has raised $20.7 million in a second round of funding led by Alta Partners of San Francisco and Alta Berkeley of London. New investors contributing to the round were nCoTec from London and Rendex Partners of Antwerp. Existing seed round investor Celtic House Investment Partners also participated.

Synad’s technology platform, AgilRF™ provides mobility and interoperability in wireless local area networks regardless of the standard employed. The first product utilising AgileRF is Mercury5G™, a two chip dual band wireless LAN solution. The new funds have been raised to support the commercialisation of Mercury5G.

Synad is based in Reading and was founded in July 2000 with a view to providing broadband wireless connectivity through the development of CMOS chips for the wireless networking industry. Today Synad employs over 50 people and is working on the development of technologies and products for Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN).

Khaled Nasr of Alta Partners said: “Synad has strong management and a world-class design team which we expect to build a business of significant value in the coming years.”

Mike Baker, CEO AT Synad, said: “Raising a significant level of funding in such a difficult economic climate is testament to the strength of Synad’s design expertise and our technology lead.”