A group of European investment funds announced an investment in DelfMEMS, a developer of MEMS based switching solutions for applications in the RF communications field. The funding of $10.5 million, of which $4.5 million from the FSN PME, will enable DelfMEMS to accelerate the commercialization of its products. The company also announced the appointment of Guillaume d'Essautier as CEO.
DelfMEMS, an emerging player in the field of RF components and a developer of RF MEMS switching solutions, announced that the company has secured $10.5 million in round B funding. This substantial investment comes from CDC Entreprises (and its FSN PME arm), Iris Capital, Capitalaria, VIVES as well as previous investors such as A2D Invest, Alliansys, Finorpa, Inovam, Rhône-Alpes-Création, and investment angels. The new funding will be used to support the company's growth in the next generation wireless front-end modules for mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. DelfMEMS proposes a new integrated micro-mechanical building block that is based on a strong, totally new IP portfolio that solves past issues and substantially improves insertion loss, linearity, integration, hot switching behavior, switching time (<1μs), and power consumption to simplify RF architectures.
"DelfMEMS' technology enables its customers to increase bandwidth while minimizing cost, size, and consumption," explains Olivier Millet, founder of DelfMEMS. "These funds will enable us to qualify first design wins and DelfMEMS manufacturing process including thin film pPackaging with our partner for high volume manufacturing entity in the USA. The goal is to support the aggressive production ramp-up of our customers to penetrate the market." DelfMEMS is currently engaged with the leaders of equipment for mobile applications and is also pursuing instrumentation, defense, and other high added value applications.
Along with the investment, DelfMEMS appoints Guillaume d'Eyssautier as its new CEO. Olivier Millet, the company's founder and former CEO, and will remain on the board and will take the role of chief strategy and marketing officer of DelfMEMS. Mr. d'Eyssautier has worked in the past 30 years in the semiconductor industry, including management positions in both Europe and the US. Most recently he was the CEO of ADD Semiconductor which was acquired by Atmel in October 2011. Prior to ADD he was the CEO of Picochip, acquired by Mindspeed. Prior to that, Mr. d'Eyssautier served as the Senior VP and GM at Cadence Design Systems, VP and GM EMEA for IBM Technology Group (,icroelectronics and storage) and held executive and management positions at Rockwell Semiconductor, GEC Plessey Semiconductors, Matra-Harris Semiconductor and Philips Semiconductors (now NXP).
Olivier Millet, commented, "We founded DelfMEMS with the vision of being a major player in wireless, and we are delighted to appoint a CEO who has the ideal pedigree to capitalize on this. We worked closely with Guillaume during the past few months to make the transition seamless for our customers. With an impeccable track record of a CEO of technology start-ups and senior management positions within blue-chip semiconductor and design companies, it would be difficult to imagine a better candidate than Guillaume to lead DelfMEMS as it moves up to the next level in its evolution."
Guillaume d'Eyssautier commented, "I have worked across the semiconductor industry in a variety of first-rate companies and I am very proud to have joined DelfMEMS. We have an incredibly attractive technology, as recognized by our great customers and partners. I look forward to building on these achievements and DelfMEMS becoming a wonderful success."
Commenting on the investment, "The round, which brings total company funding to $16 million, is a significant boost for DelfMEMS to extend its leadership as an RF MEMS vendor. Guillaume d'Eyssautier concludes, "this funding, along with our major design wins and rapidly growing revenue, will take us comfortably to the point of volume production and position us well for success."
"DelfMEMS reached a point where significant cash infusion was needed to support its client traction," states Frederic Le Brun, Investment Director at CDC Entreprises. "With Iris Capital, VIVES and Capitalaria, we are taking over from the historical investors, who have backed the growth of DelfMEMs from its inception with the ambition of turning it into a worldwide leader. This deal, led by both local and national players among which funds that are backed by CDC Entreprises, totally illustrates the FSN PME's strategy."
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