AMIMON Raises $14 Million to Bring Wireless HDTV to Market.SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- AMIMON, Inc. announced today it has raised $14 million in a second round of private venture funding. This brings the total investment in the company to more than $21 million. AMIMON is developing a wireless video modem chipset for the transmission of uncompressed high-definition video streams with equivalent data rates of up to 3Gbps, which it plans to bring to market in the first quarter of 2007. This second round was led by Stata Venture Partners of Boston. Other participants in this round include Argonaut Private Equity and previous investors Cedar Fund, Walden Israel and Evergreen Partners. "AMIMON's ability to distribute uncompressed wireless HD video streams with wired-equivalent quality is a strategic building block for the home multimedia network," said Lee Barbieri, Managing Partner of Stata Ventures. "We decided to invest in AMIMON due to the enormous market potential for its innovative technologies, its talented management team, its superior technology, and the significant traction it has made with major consumer electronics vendors." "This strategic investment will fuel our progress toward full production by early next year," said Dr. Yoav Nissan-Cohen, chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of AMIMON Inc. "The major players in the consumer electronics market, including TV, projector, flat panel display A thin display screen for computer and TV usage. The first flat panels appeared on laptop computers in the mid-1980s, and the LCD technology became the standard. Stand-alone LCD screens became available for desktop computers in the mid-1990s and exceeded sales of CRTs for the first time and set-top box manufacturers, are excited about the many new applications enabled by our wireless HD technology." AMIMON's wireless high definition interface (WHDI WHDI Wireless Home Digital Interface WHDI Wireless High Definition Interface (wireless video) (TM)) was recently demonstrated with SANYO Electric Company, Ltd. at its booth at the InfoComm 2006 trade show in Orlando, Fla, and received an Infocomm 2006 Best Buzz Award by Insight Media. The Company also was recently named Israel's Best Start-up in the communications sector by Red Herring Magazine and the Israel Venture Association. About WHDI(TM) AMIMON's wireless high definition interface (WHDI(TM)) technology enables wireless transmission of uncompressed high-definition video streams in the 5GHz unlicensed band. Equivalent video data rates of up to 3Gbps (including 1080p) are achieved using 40 MHz of bandwidth in compliance with FCC (1) (Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC, www.fcc.gov) The U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including wire, cable, radio, TV and satellite. The FCC was created under the U.S. regulations. Video data-rates of up to 1.5Gbps (including 1080i and 720p) can be delivered using 20MHz of bandwidth, conforming to worldwide 5GHz spectrum regulations. WHDI(TM) enables applications such as wireless flat-panel TVs, wireless projectors, and wireless HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) A digital interface for audio and video signals designed as a single-cable solution for home theater and consumer electronics equipment. (TM) and wireless VGA (Video Graphics Array) The display standard for the PC. All PC display adapters support VGA, and Windows machines boot up in "VGA mode" before switching to higher resolutions. repeaters (dongles). WHDI(TM) has been demonstrated at ranges of up to 100 feet through walls, and has a latency of less than one millisecond. All other wireless solutions are limited to delivering compressed video such as MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). , which is typically not available at the output of most consumer electronic video devices. About AMIMON AMIMON is a fabless semiconductor company A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices implemented on semiconductor chips. It achieves an advantage by outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized semiconductor manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry or "fab. pioneering wireless uncompressed high-definition video for universal connectivity among CE video devices. AMIMON's uncompressed Wireless High-Definition Interface Wireless High-definition Interface is a new short range wireless ultrawideband transmission technology intended to replace cables between video sources and televisions and other displays. It is being driven by Motorola and AMIMON. (WHDI(TM)) allows flat-panel televisions and multimedia projectors to wirelessly interface to all HDTV (High Definition TV) A set of digital television (DTV) standards that offer the highest resolution and sharpest picture. Although some HDTV sets are available in standard (rather square) screen sizes, the overwhelming majority of sets are wide screen, which eliminates video sources at a quality equivalent to that achieved with wired interfaces such as component video, DVI and HDMI(TM). AMIMON operates internationally out of offices in Herzlia, Israel, Santa Clara, Calif. USA, and Tokyo, Japan. The Company is funded by Cedar Fund, Walden Israel Venture Capital, Evergreen Partners, Stata venture Partners and Argonaut Ventures. More information is available at www.amimon.com. About Stata Venture Partners Stata Venture Partners is a private equity fund that invests in early stage new business opportunities around the world. They have strategic investments in a wide array of technologies ranging from semiconductors to telecommunications backbone and infrastructure. Stata Ventures specializes in helping companies build the internal infrastructure and long term strategic plan needed to be successful in today's dynamic marketplace. Stata Ventures was begun by Ray Stata, founder and Chairman of Analog Devices, a leading semiconductor corporation. About Argonaut Private Equity Argonaut Private Equity is a diversified global private equity fund dedicated to building emerging market leaders. With more than $2 billion under management provided by a single entrepreneur, Argonaut is uniquely positioned to assist entrepreneurial companies. Its equity investments range from $1 million to $200 million and span such diverse markets as consumer electronics, specialty materials, telecommunications, drug discovery and delivery, medical devices, aviation and healthcare services. Argonaut's portfolio includes investments in the United States, China, Israel, India, Japan, Eastern Europe and Australia. About Cedar Fund Cedar Fund is a venture capital firm, investing in high technology companies. Cedar Fund seeks to invest in outstanding entrepreneurs pursuing high growth markets with distinguished technologies in the telecommunications, networking, Internet-infrastructure and enterprise software areas. Cedar Fund invests in all stages, and specializes in early stage, Israel-related situations. With its quality investment track record and over $225 million under management, Cedar Fund is among the largest and most notable venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] focusing on Israel-related, early stage investments. For more information, please visit www.cedarfund.com. About Evergreen Evergreen Venture Partners is one of Israel's pioneering and premier venture capital firms focusing on early-stage technology investments. Evergreen's current $650 million of private equity funds under management represents one of the largest portfolios in Israel with investments in almost 100 technology start-ups. Founded in 1987, Evergreen's long track record of success is based on the experience, skills and commitment of its core team which has worked together for the past three funds. Evergreen has executed 30 successful portfolio company exits through IPOs or trade sales. Some of these companies include P-Cube, Actona, Creo, Galileo, Backweb, Exalink, Radvision and Radware. Evergreen's seventeen years of successful private equity investments has attracted a global network of blue-chip investors, including Bank of America
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. , HarbourVest, Teachers of Illinois Retirement System, NIF NIF See: Note issuance facility Ventures (Daiwa), ABN-Amro, CALTECH CALTECH California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California, USA) , and Ontario Municipal Retirement Fund. For more information, please visit www.evergreen.co.il About Walden Israel Walden Israel is one of Israel's leading early-stage technology venture funds, operating in Israel since 1993. Walden Israel manages three focused funds concentrating in the communications and information technology markets. The fund is managed by experienced technology entrepreneurs and has backed more than 40 Israeli start-ups to date. Walden Israel's 2006 exits include: Passave (acquired by PMC-Sierra, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : PMCS PMCS PMC Sierra (stock symbol) PMCS Project Management Control System PMCS partial mission-capable, supply (US DoD) PMCS Preventive Maintenance Checks & Services PMCS Professional Military Comptroller School ), nLayers (acquired by EMC (1) (EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, www.emc.com) The leading supplier of storage products for midrange computers and mainframes. Founded in 1979 by Richard J. Egan and Roger Marino, EMC has developed advanced storage and retrieval technologies for the world's largest companies. , Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :EMC), and Ex Libris (acquired by Francisco Partners). For additional information about Walden Israel, please see: www.walden.co.il. WHDI is a trademark of AMIMON, Ltd. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are those of their respective holders. |
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