01 Aug 2005
3i backed Nujira Secures $7.75 Million in Series A Funding
The round was co-led by 3i and Amadeus Capital Partners, who was the lead seed investor. The round included further investment by the existing investors Cambridge Gateway Partners, Cambridge Capital Group and the Cambridge Angels.
Power amplifiers are essential building blocks for wireless communication networks as they are found in every cellphone and cellular base station and are critical to the transmission of all wireless signals. Nujira has established itself as a key player in an industry currently undergoing fundamental changes as a result of the increased use of sophisticated modulation schemes. Nujira''s high power High Accuracy Tracking (HAT) Modulators for WCDMA, CDMA2000 or WiMAX base stations enable infrastructure and handset OEMs to avoid the reduction in amplifier efficiency normally associated with use of these systems.
"Nujira''s high power HAT technology for very high efficiency power amplifiers presents a compelling solution for 3G cellular base station OEMs," stated Barak Maoz of Amadeus Capital Partners, who joins the board. "Their HAT Modulators are the cornerstone of OEM''s attempts to achieve 30% - 50% power amplifier efficiency. These levels of performance offer significant cost savings for network operators and system integrators as they seek ways of reducing operating costs while expanding network capacity."
According to analysts, the cellular base station market is in for a resurgence in the next few years. They predict that the growth in base stations will be driven by 3G, continued growth of subscribers, base station upgrades, and the need for increased cellular network capacity. The number of cellular base station units is predicted to grow from 1.8 million in 2004 to 3.5 million in 2009.
Gabriel Brown, chief analyst with Unstrung, commented, "There are great opportunities for specialist RF subsystem players in the cellular base station market. In particular, there is huge potential for innovators that can significantly improve upon the efficiency of today''s power amplifiers."
"Nujira has assembled an outstanding senior engineering and management team with a proven track record. The company is gaining great customer traction and is well positioned to become the market leader in this field," said Stephen Lowery, 3i director. 3i''s Ian Lobley who joins the board, added "Nujira has anticipated the need for efficiency in emerging wireless standards and, having demonstrated its technology to leading OEMs, is now entering into contracts. As data rates continue to increase and power consumption in infrastructure and devices becomes more of an issue, Nujira''s technology offers a path to improved efficiency for manufacturers."
Tim Haynes, CEO of Nujira added, "We are very fortunate to have the support of such leading venture capital investors. Nujira has made tremendous technical and commercial progress to date. Our prototype products have gained great interest from customers, and the Series A investment will enable us to further build out our engineering and business development teams and take our products into pilot production."
Notes to editors
About Nujira Ltd (www.nujira.com)
Nujira Ltd was founded by four ex-Symbionics/Tality staff and is lead by Tim Haynes, Managing Director. Nujira develops power amplifier related intellectual property for the wireless communications industry. Nujira''s initial focus is targeted on the Cellular Infrastructure Industry and addresses an ongoing and increasingly important problem of power consumption. Nujira''s IP enables significant reduction in the power consumption of RF transmitters and is ideally suited to battery driven equipment or applications in which power consumption is a major issue.
About Amadeus Capital Partners (www.amadeuscapital.com)
Amadeus invests venture capital in new technologies from offices in London and Cambridge, UK. Since its inception in 1997, Amadeus has backed over 50 companies in the UK and continental Europe, covering computer hardware and software, mobile and fixed communications technologies and medical technologies. Investments include Cambridge Silicon Radio, producing single chip bluetooth radios for short range connections and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, Optos, a manufacturer of laser retinal scanners and number one in 2003''s Tech Track 100, Cambridge Broadband, developing technologies for wireless broadband networks in countries with poor infrastructure and number one in 2004''s Tech Track 100, Valista, an electronic payments company, Solexa, developing ultra high speed gene sequencing machines and AePONA, a developer of standards-based software gateways for the telecoms industry. Successful realisations from the Amadeus portfolio include Entropic, bought by Microsoft and Element-14, bought by Broadcom Corporation.
About 3i (www.3i.com)
3i is a world leader in private equity and venture capital. We focus on Buyouts, Growth Capital and Venture Capital and invest across Europe, in the United States and in Asia Pacific. Our competitive advantage comes from our international network and the strength and breadth of our relationships in business. These underpin the value that we deliver to our portfolio and to our shareholders.
In the year to March 31, 2005, 3i invested £962m, including co-investment funds. 3i''s Buyouts business operates primarily on a pan European basis, investing in businesses with a transaction value of up to €1 billion. In the year to March 31, 2005, Buyouts invested £532m. During the same period, its Growth Capital business, which focuses on high growth companies expanding organically or through acquisition, invested £274m across Europe and Asia. 3i''s Venture Capital business invested £144m in the year to March 31, 2005 in early stage technology companies throughout Europe and US.
Some of 3i''s award-winning early stage portfolio include Vonage, US (VOIP), Udex US (RFID), The Cloud, UK (wireless), Microsulis, Scotland (medtech), Mobile 365, France (comms), Smart Fuel Cells, Germany (energy), Fractus, Spain (antennas), Sulake Finland (gaming) with successful IPOs and realisations for CSR, e2v, Bookham Technology (UK), Pedestal software (US), Novuspharma (Italy) and many others.
