Sydney long-distance wi-fi chip maker Morse Mirco has raised an $88 million Series C.
The round was led by existing backer Japanese fabless semiconductor supplier MegaChips, topped up by $35 million from the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) and support from other previous investors including Blackbird, CSIRO-backed Main Sequence, super funds Hostplus, NGS, managed by Blackbird, and UniSuper, plus Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull.
Morse Micro previously raised $170 million in 2022 – an initial $140 million Series B this time three years ago – $100m of that from MegaChips – then another $30 million from super funds 10 weeks later.
The 9-year-old startup, founded by Michael De Nil and Andrew Terry, former engineers with US semiconductor giant Broadcom, produces long-range, low-power chips for IoT (Internet of Things) devices to communicate over distances of between 1km in urban environments, or up to 16km in rural areas. The microchips are used in everything from consumer products to agriculture, mining, renewables, transport, and smart metering.
Morse Micro’s wi-fi HaLow chips allow the signal to penetrate walls and other obstacles, extending wi-fi coverage.
The funding will be used to accelerate growth and develop next generation technology.
Morse Micro is Australia’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and NRF CEO David Gall called it “home-grown Australian success story.”
“Morse Micro employs over 130 people in Australia, including employees in regional New South Wales, and our investment will diversify the Australian economy, strengthen the nation’s sovereign manufacturing capabilities, and build local expertise in semiconductor design and innovation.”
De Nil, the CEO said the funding “is another strong vote of confidence in our mission to be the number one wireless IoT chip company in the world”.
“The future of IoT depends on connectivity that is long-range, power-efficient, secure and delivers on throughput – and that’s exactly where we are leading. With this raise, we are accelerating our expansion and preparing for the next phase of our company’s growth,” he said.
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