Led by Fine Structure Ventures, Engine Ventures, and Safar Partners – with strategic participation from technology partner GlobalFoundries – the new funding signals strong support and an appreciation of the market potential of Finwave’s GaN-on-Si technology as the company transitions from an innovator to a commercial operation.
Referring to the commercial potential of the company’s technology, Dr. Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, CEO of Finwave said, “This funding round validates the years of engineering and innovation behind our proprietary GaN-on-Si technology and provides resources we need to move from the development phase to delivering differentiated, high-performance products.
“More than just funding, this is a clear endorsement of our direction – and a strong signal that the industry believes in the path we’re on.”
Finwave will use the money raised to accelerate revenue generation, expand its product portfolio and continue developing GaN-on-Si technology for the following targeted market segments: High-power RF switches, power amplifiers for communications infrastructure, and power amplifiers for mobile devices.
“Since our initial investment, Finwave has made remarkable progress towards becoming a leader in GaN-on-Si high-performance RF components,” said Jennifer Uhrig, Senior Managing Director, Fine Structure Ventures. “Their strategic foundry partnership with GlobalFoundries and distribution partnership with RFMW have been particularly notable, legitimising their design capabilities and giving customers confidence in Finwave’s ability to bring high-performance, reliable products to market.”
GaN is quickly becoming one of the most promising semiconductor technologies and Finwave’s GaN-on-Si technology improves on the superior performance of GaN solutions while adopting the cost and scale of manufacturing advantages from high-volume CMOS silicon wafers.
The company’s product portfolio includes high-power RF switches, which are now globally available due to Finwave’s partnership with the RF distributor RFMW, as well as upcoming RF power amplifiers.
Finwave’s highly differentiated GaN-on-Si RF chips are targeted at a wide-array of RF applications, including communications infrastructure (base stations, MIMO, small cells, land mobile radios, customer premise equipment, fixed wireless access), Wi-Fi routers, satellite, radar, drones, anti-drones, test & measurement equipment, and medical equipment.
