LTE 4G chipset designer Altair Semiconductor Ltd. has raised $26 million. Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) led the round, joined by all of Altair's current investors: BRM Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Giza Venture Capital, and Pacific Technology Partners.
Altair will use the proceeds to support its rapid growth in global sales and clients, and to develop next-generation LTE products. The company has raised $74 million to date, including the current round, since it was founded in 2005.
Over the past two years, Altair has positioned itself as the market leader in LTE chips. It was the first to launch LTE chips in September 2009, beating larger and older semiconductor companies. The company's products have subsequently participated in commercial LTE network deployments in Europe and in field trials in the US, Japan, China, India, and Germany.
In December 2010, Altair announced that its chipsets will be power products of Germany's AVM GmbH that will be used by the 4G network of Telefonica O2 Germany GmbH & Co.
Altair CEO Oded Melamed said, "The financing round is an important milestone for us at this stage of moving from supporting a limited number of customers to large-scale commercial deployments and entering markets in Asia, Europe, and the US.
"The LTE market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. The proceeds from the financing round will enable us to strengthen our sales infrastructure and support the companies customers while leveraging market growth."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 10, 2011
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