{"id":7118,"date":"2021-02-16T17:24:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T22:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.creatures.ca\/2021\/02\/16\/spark-microsystems-announces-cdn17-5-million-financing-led-by-cycle-capital-to-drive-commercialization\/"},"modified":"2021-02-16T17:24:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T22:24:46","slug":"spark-microsystems-announces-cdn17-5-million-financing-led-by-cycle-capital-to-drive-commercialization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/2021\/02\/16\/spark-microsystems-announces-cdn17-5-million-financing-led-by-cycle-capital-to-drive-commercialization\/","title":{"rendered":"SPARK Microsystems Announces CDN$17.5 Million Financing Led by Cycle Capital to Drive Commercialization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"xn-location\">MONTREAL<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-chron\">Feb. 16, 2021<\/span>\u00a0&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sparkmicro.com\/\"><strong>SPARK Microsystems<\/strong><\/a>, a fabless semiconductor company leading the way in ultra-low power, ultra-low latency wireless communications, announces the closing of a\u00a0<span class=\"xn-money\">CDN$17.5<\/span>\u00a0million\u00a0equity financing to accelerate commercialization. Led by Cycle Capital, the round included new investors ND Capital (a Silicon Valley and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Europe<\/span>-based venture capital firm dedicated to disruptive technologies) and Export Development Canada, as well as existing investor Real Ventures and private investors. Proceeds will be used to fund high-volume manufacturing, sales ramp and expanded R&amp;D for next generation products.<\/p>\n<p><b>Industry veterans Dr.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Sanjay K. Jha<\/span>\u00a0and Dr.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Paul Jacobs<\/span>\u00a0reinvest in SPARK Microsystems<br class=\"dnr\" \/><\/b>Former Qualcomm CEO\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Paul Jacobs<\/span>\u00a0and former GlobalFoundries CEO\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Sanjay K. Jha<\/span>, both reinvested in the company as part of the round.<\/p>\n<p><b>Dr.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Sanjay K. Jha<\/span><\/b>\u00a0is the former CEO of GlobalFoundries Inc., the second largest semiconductor contract manufacturer in the world. Prior to that, he was the Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility Inc., a role he held until the acquisition of the company by Google in 2012. Before Motorola, Sanjay worked at Qualcomm for 14 years, finishing his tenure there as the COO of Qualcomm, and President of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), the CDMA &amp; computing chipset and SW division of Qualcomm. Sanjay holds a PhD (ECS), and D.Sc (Hon) from the\u00a0<span class=\"xn-org\">University of Strathclyde<\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Scotland<\/span>, UK. In 2018, he was elected into the US National Academy of Engineering. He is an investor and board member of a number of private technology companies.<\/p>\n<p><b>Dr.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Paul E. Jacobs<\/span><\/b>\u00a0is the former CEO and executive Chairman of Qualcomm. During his tenure as CEO, Qualcomm&#8217;s revenues quadrupled and its market capitalization doubled.\u00a0 Dr. Jacobs is a prolific inventor with over 80 U.S. patents granted or pending in the field of wireless technology and devices. He is a board member of a number of private technology companies. He founded\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Berkeley&#8217;s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation <\/span>and was the university&#8217;s 2017 Alumnus of the Year.\u00a0 Dr. Jacobs is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>In conjunction with the financing, Cycle Capital&#8217;s Senior Partner\u00a0<b><span class=\"xn-person\">Amit Srivastava<\/span><\/b>\u00a0also joins the Board of Directors. Earlier in his career, he led venture capital investments in the electronics sector at JP Morgan Partners and held key marketing and engineering management positions at Texas Instruments.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, SPARK launched the SR1000 ultra-wide band (UWB) wireless transceiver ICs enabling a new class of short-range wireless connectivity applications including gaming peripherals and AR\/VR headsets, smart home devices, and battery-less internet of things sensors. Within nine months after the launch announcement, SPARK Microsystems:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shipped tens of thousands of pre-production units to multiple customers<\/li>\n<li>Prototyped a next-generation wireless gaming hub with headset, mouse and keyboard in conjunction with a Tier 1 ODM partner<\/li>\n<li>Sold over 70 evaluation kits to companies designing wireless AR, VR, IoT and positioning products<\/li>\n<li>Delivered paid SoWs for advanced wireless products to multiple Fortune 100 companies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>QUOTES<br class=\"dnr\" \/><\/b>&#8220;In just four years since the <a href=\"https:\/\/ecofuelaccelerate.com\/?lang=en\"><strong>Ecofuel Acceleration program<\/strong><\/a>, SPARK Microsystems was able to deliver a revolutionary low-power wireless solution to customers,&#8221; said Andr\u00e9e-Lise M\u00e9thot, Founder and Managing Partner of Cycle Capital and Chair of the Ecofuel Accelerator. &#8220;Cycle Capital invests in companies that have a meaningful impact on climate change. We believe that SPARK will not only enable battery-less networks and dramatically cut power consumption across a wide range of emerging wireless applications but also reduce electronic waste going to landfills.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are excited by the rapid customer adoption of the SPARK solution,&#8221; said\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Sanjay Jha<\/span>, \u00a0former CEO, GlobalFoundries and active investor. &#8220;The company engaged with multiple customers who will deploy millions of wireless devices in the coming years. SPARK&#8217;s technology significantly extends battery life for various Industrial IoT and consumer electronics including AR\/VR, gaming and audio applications \u2013 enabling for new functionalities as well as improved performance.\u00a0 This financing puts SPARK in a strong position to meet the volume production requirements of those customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are very pleased to have received this strong financial backing from Cycle Capital, as well as new and existing investors,&#8221; said Fares Mubarak, CEO, SPARK Microsystems. &#8220;This funding, coupled with many years of outstanding technical and operational leadership from the new Board members will help accelerate the commercialization of our UWB transceiver products into high-volume production and better position us to execute our growth strategy and expand in key markets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are excited to see our dream of creating such a differentiated wireless technology to address many\u00a0markets and expand the usability of wireless devices taking shape.&#8221; said Dr. Frederic Nabki, Cofounder and CTO, SPARK Microsystems.<\/p>\n<p><b>About SPARK Microsystems<br class=\"dnr\" \/><\/b>SPARK Microsystems, a fabless semiconductor company, commercializes ultra-low power and ultra-short latency wireless platform for the Internet of Things revolution. The company was founded in 2016, now employs 40 people in\u00a0Montreal and in the US, and anticipates doubling in size over the next 18 months including adding 15 sales and application engineers. SPARK Microsystems was elected one of the &#8220;10 Startups in the Spotlight&#8221; on the latest EETimes Silicon 100 list, received the 2019 Defense Innovation Award at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3067538-1&amp;h=1575321069&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fevents.techconnect.org%2FDTCFall%2F&amp;a=TechConnect.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TechConnect.<\/a>, and won the 2018 Nokia Open Innovation Challenge. For more info:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3067538-1&amp;h=3408274066&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sparkmicro.com%2F&amp;a=sparkmicro.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sparkmicro.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>About Cycle Capital Management<br class=\"dnr\" \/><\/b>Cycle Capital Management is an impact investor and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Canada&#8217;s<\/span>\u00a0leading cleantech venture capital investment platform with AUM (assets under management) of\u00a0<span class=\"xn-money\">CDN$0.5 Billion<\/span>. With offices in\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Montreal<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Toronto<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Qingdao<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 in continental\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 and a presence in\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">New York<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Seattle<\/span>, CCM invests throughout\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">North America<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">China<\/span>\u00a0in growth stage companies that commercialize technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, optimize resource use and improve process efficiency. Cycle Capital is the Founder of the Ecofuel Accelerator. For info:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3067538-1&amp;h=3989386698&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcyclecapital.com%2F&amp;a=www.cyclecapital.com \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">www.cyclecapital.com <\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>For more information<\/b>:<br class=\"dnr\" \/>Fares Mubarak<br class=\"dnr\" \/>CEO<br class=\"dnr\" \/>SPARK Microsystems<br class=\"dnr\" \/><a href=\"mailto:Fares.mubarak@sparkmicro.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fares.mubarak@sparkmicro.com<\/a><br class=\"dnr\" \/>+1-925-998-7330<\/p>\n<p>Catherine B\u00e9rub\u00e9<br class=\"dnr\" \/>VP Sustainability, Investor Relations and Public Relations<br class=\"dnr\" \/>Cycle Capital<br class=\"dnr\" \/><a href=\"mailto:cberube@cyclecapital.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cberube@cyclecapital.com<\/a><br class=\"dnr\" \/>+1-514-629-1022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MONTREAL,\u00a0Feb. 16, 2021\u00a0&#8211; SPARK Microsystems, a fabless semiconductor company leading the way in ultra-low power, ultra-low latency wireless communications, announces the closing of a\u00a0CDN$17.5\u00a0million\u00a0equity financing to accelerate commercialization. Led by Cycle Capital, the round included new investors ND Capital (a Silicon Valley and\u00a0Europe-based venture capital firm dedicated to disruptive technologies) and Export Development Canada, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclecapital.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}