Crocus bags €34 million in series D funding
This new financing will enable Crocus to accelerate its go to market program, new product qualification and manufacturing ramp up
Crocus Technology, a developer of magnetically enhanced semiconductor technologies for mobile security, embedded microcontrollers, harsh environment electronics and magnetic sensors, has raised EUR (€)34 million (US$ 45 million) in additional capital.
A new private investor, Industrial Investors, joined the round led by Idinvest Partners. Major investors Sofinnova Ventures, Innovation Capital, Nanodimension and Ventech also participated, underscoring seven years' support.
Shareholder Rusnano has also contributed to the funding.
The new funding will enable Crocus to significantly ramp up manufacturing at TowerJazz Semiconductors. It will also enable Crocus to qualify its jointly owned fab, Crocus Nano Electronics, and release the first engineering wafers during the summer
Together with its partner IBM, Crocus hopes to accelerate the development of Generation 3 technology for Crocus' secure microcontrollers. These secure microcontrollers will target primarily high-end smart cards, a market that reached 7.9 billion units in 2012. This is according to ABI Research, in a report from May 2013. Crocus aims to capture 30 percent of this market by bringing smart card makers new enhanced-performance features at lower cost.
Crocus also aims to launch a magnetic sensor product line, which leverages the same proprietary Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU) manufacturing platform technology, in a market expected to reach the $2 billion per year mark in the near term.
"Crocus is now fully funded to deliver on the last key milestone in the industrial processing of its now mature Magnetic Logic Unit technology," says Bertrand Cambou, CEO and executive chairman of Crocus Technology.
"The commitment from our impressive group of investors along with the validation of our technology by strategic customers put us in a good position to prepare for product revenue around the end of this year. Combined with our steadily growing licensing and services business, we anticipate reaching cash flow break-even point by the end of next year," concludes Cambou.
Crocus has pioneered the development of Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU), a CMOS-based rugged technology. MLUs bring important new advantages in speed, performance and security at lower cost to a range of next-generation electronics. It brings high sensitivity, low-noise, high temperature performance to magnetic sensors.
Pinot de Villechenon and Associes acted as legal advisors to Crocus for the €34 million funding.
