Anokiwave, Inc. has completed a Series C funding round led by a new investor, Gefinor Capital with US Boston Capital Corporation and its affiliate Pear Tree Partners. Mr. Chris Davis of Gefinor will join Anokiwave’s board. Previous investors also invested in the round. The total funding raised was not disclosed.
The Series C funding will support the development of silicon-based RFICs for 5G, satellite communications and aerospace and defense markets. Robert Donahue, Anokiwave’s CEO, said, “This latest funding round allows us to accelerate the introduction of our second generation of ICs, to develop the third generation of ICs and to grow our teams worldwide to continue our leadership position in the market.”
Anokiwave has seen significant growth since launching its first millimeter wave active antenna silicon core IC in 2015. The company has developed a family of highly integrated millimeter wave beamsteering ICs using silicon, which enables the RF, digital and analog functions to be integrated on a single IC — all the requisite functions for active antennas. The size of the packaged IC supports the lattice spacing of the phased array antenna elements, yielding low profile, low cost and low weight planar transceivers. Anokiwave sees growing demand, particularly from customers aiming to apply active antennas — which began as a military technology — to commercial markets.
Chris Davis, a partner at Gefinor Capital, said, “Anokiwave is the only company with a production ready suite of silicon ICs for the nascent 5G telecom market. This leading position is directly attributable to great foresight from management, coupled with excellence in engineering and decades of team experience designing advanced communications antenna ICs.”
Bill Umphrey, US Boston managing partner, said, “We are very impressed with Anokiwave’s leadership, strategy and ability to execute in the rapidly evolving active antenna market. As the first 5G network deployments are starting in 2018, the urgency heightens to make millimeter wave 5G technology commercially ready for consumers.”