An additional $10.2 million complements the $8.8 million investment announced earlier this year.
The new round comes from existing investors, FORWARD.one, InnovationQuarter Capital and Waterman Ventures, and includes an Innovation Credit facility from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO.
According to Qualinx, it now has sufficient financing to complete the development of its second-generation GNSS IoT radio system-on-chip (SoC) and to commence mass production in 2024.
Founded as a spin-off from Delft University of Technology and supported by earlier investments from Delft Enterprises, Qualinx has developed and successfully tested a new radio chip that can receive geo-positioning information from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with a 10 times lower power consumption, smaller chip size and at reduced costs compared to existing solutions. The chip is able to detect signals from all major satellite systems including GPS, to accurately determine location and time.
“This next step in our Series A financing round shows the confidence of our existing investors in DRF technology and our successful application for RVO’s Innovation Credit facility reaffirms that our technology and market strategy are on track”, said Tom Trill, CEO at Qualinx.”
Qualinx’s Digital Radio Frequency (DRF) technology transfers most of a wireless chip’s analogue functions into the digital domain, which brings CMOS scaling benefits to GPS-like radios and to other industry-standard, short and long-range radios. In all these devices, DFR functions can be configured in software to precisely tailor the radio’s performance for each application, while delivering up to 10X power reduction in smaller, lower-cost packages than those of traditional radios.
The company’s first-generation product, the QLX300+ is believed to be the world's smallest and most power-efficient Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) sensor.
According to Qualinx, the second-generation QLX400 will combine the GNSS sensor with an IoT radio on one chip. The GNSS sensors receive geo-positioning information, detecting signals from all major satellite systems including GPS and Galileo, to accurately determine location and time. The addition of a radio creates a low-power system-on-chip that will extend the operating life of battery-powered products from months to years.
“Early customer engagements confirm that geo-positioning and asset tracking will be key applications for our technology, but it will be equally attractive for many other IoT products, from security devices to fitness trackers," added Trill.
