UWB Chipset Startup WiQuest Raises $18 Million In Series B Funding

Allen, TX -- WiQuest Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company focused on the design and production of complete high-performance, ultrawideband-based wireless silicon solutions, announced the closing of $18M in Series B funding. This round of funding was led by new investor Sequoia Capital -- the principal venture investor behind well-known and respected companies such as Google, Cisco, Apple and Nvidia -- and also included full participation by Series A investors, Menlo Ventures, Palomar Ventures and iD Ventures America. WiQuest will use these new funds to ramp production of its existing products and to further expand its growing portfolio of WiMedia and Wireless USB solutions.

"We are pleased to support WiQuest's ultrawideband technology development with a strategic venture investment," said Mark Stevens, Partner at Seqouia Capital. "WiQuest's experienced management team has a proven depth of knowledge, industry leadership, and notable accomplishments to date and is a clear leader in the ultrawideband chipset market. They have already shown outstanding results and we look forward to seeing consumer products roll out later this year based on their chips." With Sequoia's investment, Mr. Stevens will join WiQuest Communications Board of Directors.

"WiQuest has demonstrated excellence in execution by developing an industry-leading ultrawideband solution and customer base, then developing the production and operations to support the strong demand," said Pravin Vazirani, WiQuest Board member and Partner with Menlo Ventures. "The company's products and technology are leading the industry and we are very pleased to increase our investment during Series B."

"The attraction of such high-caliber investors is due to the significant customer demand for our WQST110/101 chipset. The customer demand is due to WiQuest's leadership in level of silicon integration, 1 gigabit per second data rates as well as completeness and readiness of our solution." commented Dr. Matthew B. Shoemake, WiQuest founder, CEO and president. "The strong Series B lead by Sequoia Capital as well as the full participation by our Series A investors is a testament to our product and design-win leadership."

In the four months since announcing its WiMedia-based chipset, WiQuest has announced several reference designs, and agreements with sales and engineering representatives in the Far East to support customers that are currently designing the WQST110/101 chipset into their products that will debut on the market during the second half of 2006.

In December, WiQuest announced high-performance silicon delivering wireless communication speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, its WQST110 and WQST101. The chipset is based on the WiMedia UWB physical layer (PHY) and media access controller (MAC) specifications. The companion WQST101 radio frequency transceiver chip combines with the WQST110 to provide a complete UWB solution with a wide range of uses. WiQuest has also announced the availability of the WQST100EVK system evaluation kit.

Since then, WiQuest announced the availability of three new reference designs based on the Certified Wireless USB technology from the USB Implementers Forum. The DWA Wireless USB 4-port Hub, HWA Wireless USB Dongle and Wireless USB PCI Express Mini Card Reference Design Kits are based on the WQST110 and WQST101 UWB chipset and enable equipment manufacturers to build complete Device Wire Adapter (DWA) and Host Wire Adapter (HWA) solutions.

Following that announcement, WiQuest announced the signing of sales agreements with local manufacturing representatives in Korea and Greater China.

SOURCE: WiQuest Communications, Inc.