Advasense Inc., a privately-held fabless semiconductor company, announced today that it has raised a $6 million Series B financing round, led by existing investors BlueRun Ventures and Giza Venture Capital.
The capital raised in this round will assist the company in completing its first product, as well as launching the next product line.
Advasense is developing next-generation multi-megapixel CMOS image sensors for cellular phones, that enable the phones to have the same image quality as stand-alone digital still cameras.
Advasense was founded in 2004 by Vladimir Koifman and Nathan Baron, both experts in chip design, analog, digital and image processing, who together hold over 45 patents in these fields. Co-founder and serial entrepreneur Gidi Barak serves as the company’s chairman.
Advasense employs over 30 engineers in its R&D center in Ra’anana, Israel, and is managed by Naftaly Sharir, an experienced high-tech entrepreneur who was previously CEO of Emblaze Semiconductor, a leading vendor of multimedia processors for mobile handsets.
BlueRun Ventures partner Yossi Hasson said, “Advasense has great potential to become a global powerhouse in the camera phone sensor market. The company is experiencing strong interest from cellular phone and camera module vendors in Taiwan, China and Korea, and we are looking forward to the launch of the company’s first product”.
Launched in 1998, BlueRun Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in Helsinki, Herzeliya, London, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington DC.
Founded in 1992, Giza Venture Capital manages four funds with a total of $500 million. Giza has invested in 82 seed and early stages companies, in the sectors of communication, semiconductors, information technology and life sciences, with 29 exits to date.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 3, 2006
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