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Nitronex Closes $21.8 Million in Expansion Capital; Alloy Ventures, Intersouth Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Diamondhead Ventures and Others Support Company's Plans to Expand Manufacturing, Increase Staff and Pursue New MarketsRALEIGH, N.C. --(Business Wire)-- June 19, 2006 -- Nitronex, an innovative developer and manufacturer of high performance RF power transistors for the commercial and broadband wireless infrastructure markets, today announced the closing of $21.8 million in venture funding led by Silicon Valley-based Alloy Ventures, a premier provider of expansion capital to growth-focused companies in information technology and the life sciences. Other new investors in this round included Intersouth Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, and Diamondhead Ventures. Returning investors included VantagePoint Venture Partners and Contender Capital. The round is one of the largest raised in 2006 by a company in the Research Triangle region. Nitronex, founded in 1999, recently introduced a family of RF power transistors, based on its unique SIGANTIC(R) (GaN on silicon) technology, for the WiMAX market. The SIGANTIC platform technology combines the high power, high frequency, high operating voltage and broad bandwidth performance of GaN with the scalability of silicon. This introduction represented the industry's first GaN based power transistor products grown on silicon for the commercial and broadband wireless markets. "Nitronex has been at the forefront of these markets since its creation in 1999," said John Shoch, Alloy general partner. "Its leaders have spent the last several years developing the technology, consistently believing in the future of the company. Their recent product introduction combined with strong market conditions and real customer demand strongly position Nitronex for success." "I have watched Nitronex closely over the years as it evolved from a company with a somewhat nascent idea to a manufacturer selling products that address real customer needs," said Kip Frey, partner, Intersouth Partners. "We look forward to playing a role in the next phase of the company's future." The company plans to use this capital to complete the development and expand manufacturing of several new products; accelerate hiring in operations, engineering, sales and marketing and finance; expand into new global markets; and take advantage of emerging opportunities in cellular, WiMax, broadband and more. "We are proud to have so many leading investment partners demonstrate their belief in our team, our technology and our vision," expressed Charles Shalvoy, Nitronex CEO. "With their support, we are in a powerful position to build on the solid foundation we have worked to put in place over the past seven years." "We believe that our GaN on silicon based products offer significant advantages over existing LDMOS and GaAs solutions for the WiMax, cellular, and broadband wireless markets. With our new financing, we plan to accelerate our efforts to introduce a broad family of innovative RF power transistor products for these markets," continued Shalvoy. About The Investors Alloy Ventures invests primarily in seed and early stage companies in information technology and the life sciences. The firm's total committed capital under management exceeds $1 billion, including $368 million committed to Alloy Ventures in 2005. The firm's partners have been founders and CEOs of successful start-ups, officers of large companies, and have decades of venture capital experience. The firm offers entrepreneurs the experience, connections and capital necessary to build lasting, market-leading companies. For more information, visit http://www.alloyventures.com/. Intersouth Partners, located in Durham, North Carolina and Reston, Virginia, is one of the largest, most active and most experienced early stage venture funds in the country, having invested in more than 80 private companies over the last two decades. Founded in 1985, Intersouth Partners manages more than $750 million in seven venture capital limited partnerships, focusing on the technology and life sciences sectors. Visit www.intersouth.com for more information. ARCH Venture Partners invests in the development of seed and early stage technology companies that have the potential to grow rapidly into successful businesses. ARCH currently manages six funds totaling over $1 billion and has invested in the earliest venture capital rounds for more than 110 companies. More information is available at www.archventure.com. Diamondhead Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund specializing in bringing to market communications and computing infrastructure technologies spinning out of leading research universities and corporations. For more information, visit www.dhven.com. VantagePoint Venture Partners is one of the leading venture capital firms in the world, with over $2.8 billion under management, focusing entirely on technology and healthcare markets. For more information, visit www.vpvp.com. North Carolina-based Contender Capital is led by Joe Velk, a seasoned venture capitalist with 20 years of investment and company building experience. About Nitronex Nitronex is a developer and manufacturer of high performance RF power transistors for the commercial and broadband wireless markets using its patented SIGANTIC(R), GaN on silicon technology. The company's ability to combine the disciplines of material growth, wafer processing, device design and wireless applications knowledge, is unique to the GaN on silicon industry. Nitronex's technology originated at North Carolina State University. The company has since introduced industry first products that enable next generation, highly efficient, cost effective RF amplifiers for the WiMAX and cellular markets. These markets require higher power, higher frequency, higher operating voltage and broader bandwidth power transistors than are currently available from existing technologies. In addition to commercial and broadband wireless infrastructure, Nitronex's patented SIGANTIC(R) technology for growing GaN on silicon can be leveraged in a wide range of markets. Nitronex offers GaN epi wafers and GaN die to support developers in markets outside its core wireless markets. More information is available at www.nitronex.com. |
