Beceem Communications Announces C-Round Financing in Excess of $20 Million
Santa Clara, Calif., Dec. 12, 2005 - Beceem Communications (www.beceem.com), a leading provider of chipsets for Mobile WiMAX technology, today announced that it has received more than $20 million in C-round financing led by Samsung Ventures America, the US based venture capital investment arm for Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC). Beceem's existing investors -Global Catalyst Partners, KTB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Walden International and Vinod Khosla also participated in this financing round. Additional C-round investments came from the AmBex Venture Group and Mitsui Incubase Corp.
"This funding provides Beceem Communications with the financial resources to lead the Mobile WiMAX chipset market with our high performance, power-efficient terminal chipset products and infrastructure baseband solutions," said Shahin Hedayat, CEO of Beceem. "The addition of Samsung Ventures to our funding partners is key to our success as it gives Beceem access to world-class partners and customers through the network of Samsung Ventures."
Beceem is a key contributor to the IEEE 802.16e standards effort and is also instrumental in defining the first Mobile WiMAX profile for the WiMAX ForumT. Beceem will accelerate its chipset product development and expects to be the first Mobile WiMAX chipset supplier to deliver a product that is fully compliant with the Mobile WiMAX profile. The company has already demonstrated its prototype chipsets to leading telecom equipment manufacturers that are participating in the development and deployment of Mobile WiMAX networks.
"Our strategic investment in Beceem represents Samsung's commitment to Mobile WiMAX," said Brian Kang, principal investment manager at Samsung Ventures America. "Beceem is a key player with leading edge solutions for the Mobile WiMAX space and we look forward to providing them with the resources to continue pioneering in the Mobile WiMAX market."
ABOUT BECEEM COMMUNICATIONS
Beceem Communications Inc. was founded in October 2003 with the goal of building a wireless technology company offering semiconductor solutions for the wireless broadband market. Beceem is the leading supplier of chipsets for the recently ratified, IEEE 802.16e standard on which Mobile WiMAX is based. The WiMAX Forum recently defined its first Mobile WiMAX profile at its General Assembly Meeting in Beijing in November of 2005. The company's solutions target both base station and subscriber terminal applications.Beceem combines an experienced management team with strong technology leadership and seasoned Silicon Valley investors, along with a world class team of engineers. For more information, visit www.beceem.com.
About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube and Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
Contact:
Mark A. Stevens
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
stevens@sequoiacap.com
