Chil Cools Off With $16M Second Round

VentureWire

5/6/2008

By Scott Denne

Chil Semiconductor Corp., a company that makes power-management chips for computing devices, has announced a $16.7 million second round.

New investor Panorama Capital led the January round with participation from existing investors Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital and IdSoft Capital. This brings the total raised by the company to just over $30 million. The round was classified as a Series C round because of a very small Series B round raised immediately after the Series A round, according to Larry Spaziani, vice president of marketing and business development for Chil.

Spaziani declined to disclose the company's valuation.

The company designs mixed-signal semiconductors that regulate the power consumption of servers, laptops and personal computers. It differentiates itself from the competition by its work on the digital side of the chips, which allows for greater efficiency without paying a penalty in performance.

"In the past, people have succeeded with digital chips [for power management] but they are too big and expensive and often compromise performance" and could only address niche markets, said Shankar Chandran, a principal with Panorama Capital and member of the company's board.

It's a timely investment, Chandran said, because companies like Dell Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. that were heavily promoting performance a few years ago are now promoting energy efficiency.

Chil will use the proceeds of the round to build out its sales and support staff and to prepare for volume production, Spaziani said.

The company competes against analog circuit makers like Intersil Corp. and On Semiconductor Corp. as well as digital circuit makers such as Primarion Inc., which was purchased by Infineon Technologies AG last week for an undisclosed amount.

Chil Semiconductor was founded in 2006 and currently has about 40 employees, Spaziani said.

http://www.chilsemi.com