Wireless system-on-a-chip solutions developer Provigent Inc. has completed a $16 million financing round. Globespan Capital Partners of the US led the round, joined by the company’s existing investors, Pitango Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, Magnum Communications Fund, Ascend Technology Ventures, Delta Ventures and Qualcomm founder Dr. Andrew Viterbi. The company has raised $42 million to date in four financing rounds.
Provigent CEO Dan Charash and Guy Resheff founded the company in 2000 at the Nitzan incubator. Resheff later left. The company is developing a system-on-a-chip (SOC) solution for the broadband fixed wireless access market and the wireless cellular backhaul infrastructure market. The company’s SOC solution, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, enables the delivery of high performance broadband wireless systems, and is suited for a variety of broadband applications including point-to-point (PTP), point-to-multipoint (PMP) and Mesh topologies, ranging from 2GHz up to 60 GHz. The company’s technology is based on signal processing algorithms.
The present round in Provigent’s largest to date. Last year, the company obtained a $5 million bridge loan from Plenus Venture Lending Fund, which was mostly used to further product development.
Provigent CP markets Ran Soffer said, “We have a very aggressive technology roadmap. The wireless transmission market is hot, and we predict that it will grow thanks to next-generation cellular and the introduction of WiMAX, if and when that happens.’
Provigent has 50 employees at its offices in Herzliya and the US. The company has 30 wireless equipment customers. IVC Online says that the company had $6 million in sale in 2006, and that the company plans to double revenue in 2007.
Provigent chairman Eli Harry was formerly president and CEO of LanOptics Ltd. (Nasdaq: LNOP; TASE:LNOP). Board members include Pitango managing general partner Nechemia (Chemi) Peres, and Sequoia managing partner Benny Hanigal. Viterbi and AudioCodes co-founder Shabtai Adlersberg are advisers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 7, 2007
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