Pharrowtech, a leader in the design and development of mmWave hardware and software for next-generation wireless applications, announced the closure of its €15 million Series A funding round to continue developing next-generation 60 GHz wireless RF transceivers and antenna technology.
This investment round was led by Innovation Industries, a highly reputed deep tech investor based in The Netherlands, and joined by Seed Round investors imec.xpand, Bloc Ventures and KBC Focus Fund.
The funding will enable Pharrowtech to accelerate deployment of its recently launched 60 GHz CMOS RFIC PTR1060, and phased array antenna RFM PTM1060 for 5G unlicensed fixed wireless access, wireless infrastructure and consumer applications. The capital raised will also be utilized to ensure best in class customer support, expanding Pharrowtech’s operations in the U.S., and growing its engineering and business teams to drive the product roadmap and fuel further growth.
In a world led by digital transformation, high speed internet connectivity has become a crucial asset. Various economic and geographic factors are leading governments and corporations worldwide to seek solutions that can bridge the digital divide and provide ultrafast connectivity. Pharrowtech delivers a unique solution, offering gigabit-per-second speeds to consumers and businesses wirelessly. The company designs sub-systems for 60 GHz licence-free operations. This frequency range is becoming increasingly important for applications such as remote working and learning, augmented and virtual reality and entertainment and gaming, thanks to its greater capacity and lower latency.
Increasingly, network operators are looking at outdoor fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions as the most effective and economical solution to deliver the required gigabit-per-second speeds link to consumers. In parallel, due to the increasing capabilities of 5G radio base stations, mobile operators are deploying mmWave solutions to meet the increasing demand of backhaul network architectures for macro and high-density small cell deployments.
Building on imec’s R&D and prototypes, Pharrowtech recently announced the availability of the PTR1060, the world’s first IEEE 802.11ay-compliant CMOS RF chip for indoor and outdoor wireless use cases that supports the full 57 to 71 GHz bandwidth. The company also launched PTM1060 (RFM) phased array antenna modules to provide OEM/ODMs with a ready-to-use 60 GHz solution. The integration levels, performance and capabilities of Pharrowtech’s latest RFIC open the full potential of low-cost, small form factor and low-power FWA deployments, 5G and Wi-Fi infrastructure backhauling, next-generation consumer electronics products and IoT devices requiring high speed links. The programming interfaces and tunable features of the chip and antenna allow for optimal integration by equipment makers.
Both products are currently available to select customers and are already being designed-in by a tier-one U.S. equipment vendor. The company is also providing demonstrations and evaluation kits to the consumers and will ramp up the production in Q3 2022.
Wim Van Thillo, CEO and co-founder, Pharrowtech, said, “This year has started on a great note for Pharrowtech and this investment is another significant milestone in our journey. Despite the challenges brought by a global pandemic, Pharrowtech was able to move rapidly from imec R&D Prototypes in 2019 to scaling up production of an exceptionally advanced 60 GHz RF solution by 2022. Our agility and capabilities have kept us ahead of the curve, delivering solutions that will shape the future of ubiquitous connectivity. We would like to thank our team, our investors, partners and especially our customers for their faith in us. With the next phase of our growth underway, we are committed to providing RF solutions to multi-GHz links to enable low-cost infrastructure and consumer applications.”