ChipWrights Receives $18 Million in Financing; Visual Signal Processor Technology Continues Gaining Momentum.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2003 ChipWrights, Inc., the leader in digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). technology for digital imaging applications, today announced that it has raised $18 million in its third round of equity financing Equity Financing The act of raising money for company activities by selling common or preferred stock to individual or institutional investors. In return for the money paid, shareholders receive ownership interests in the corporation. . This new round brings the company's total funding to approximately $32 million. Rock Maple Ventures led the round, which included a number of additional new investors SpaceVest, Axxon Capital, Axiom axiom, in mathematics and logic, general statement accepted without proof as the basis for logically deducing other statements (theorems). Examples of axioms used widely in mathematics are those related to equality (e.g. Venture Partners, Egan Managed Capital, Shiprock Capital, Adams Harkness & Hill Technology Ventures, and previous round investors Techfarm Capital, BancBoston Ventures, New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. Partners, and Band of Angels VC Fund. The SoundView Technology Group served as the Company's sole placement agent in connection with the financing. The funding will be used for ongoing development and marketing of ChipWrights' visual signal processor (ViSP) devices for use in a wide range of digital imaging and multimedia applications. The company will be continuing to develop new ViSP family members for use in products ranging from mobile image/video devices such as digital still and video cameras to digital color copier and printers, to image servers and transcoders. ChipWrights' VisSP architecture offers very high performance, flexible programmability - with unprecedented support for popular imaging algorithms including JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. and 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). 4 encoding/decoding at low levels of power and cost. These characteristics make it an ideal platform for digital imaging applications across the consumer electronics industry. "It is no secret that 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] are highly selective these days on which companies they choose to work with and only the very best companies are able to secure funding, " said Dennis Costello, Managing Director at Rock Maple Ventures. "We are enormously impressed with the prospects for ChipWrights because they combine innovative technology, a booming market, and an outstanding management team with a demonstrated record of customer traction and technical execution." "This funding underscores our success in challenging times. Closing this funding round represents another milestone in our company's development. It follows our deal allowing Agilent Technologies This article needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. to use our architecture, the delivery of our second chip, the CW4511, and the selection of our chip by EDN EDN Endothelin EDN Eosinophil-Derived Neurotoxin EDN European Documentary Network (Denmark) EDN Earth Day Network EDN Electrodesiccation EDN Electrical Design News (periodical) Magazine as one of three DSPs contending for innovation of the year award," said Brian Fitzgerald Brian Fitzgerald (born March 1 1947) is an Irish Independent politician. He was a Labour Party Teachta Dála for Meath from 1992 to 1997. Previously a trade union official with SIPTU, Fitzgerald was elected to Dáil Éireann for Meath during the swing to Labour in the 1992 , president 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. , ChipWrights, Inc. "ChipWrights' ViSP platform best satisfies the mobile digital imaging market. Its novel architecture, superior performance, programmability, low power and low price means that OEMs can deliver innovative and highly competitive products faster and more economically." About ChipWrights ChipWrights is a privately-held 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. offering a new class of DSP-based devices called visual signal processors (ViSPs). Built on an innovative architecture comprising a RISC processor RISC processor [Reduced Instruction Set Computer], computer arithmetic-logic unit that uses a minimal instruction set, emphasizing the instructions used most often and optimizing them for the fastest possible execution. and a highly- integrated, scalable array of DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive vector processing units, this fully programmable, low cost, low power, and very high performance system-on-chip (SoC) family is ideal for building competitive products in the mobile digital imaging and video markets. Applications range from real-time image capture/presentation to image transmission/network media infrastructure. ChipWrights provides a complete software development tool suite and hardware reference designs. Headquartered in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , the company has offices in Newton, MA and Tokyo, Japan. Additional information is available at www.chipwrights.com. About Rock Maple Ventures Rock Maple Ventures, L.P. is uniquely positioned to build leading-edge companies through in-depth experience, focus on new investments and a proprietary network for business partnerships. With $80 million in capital and over 30 years of real-world executive, investment and entrepreneurial experience, Rock Maple Ventures is an active, value-added investor. Additional information is available at www.rockmapleventures.com. About SpaceVest SpaceVest, a venture capital firm managing approximately $300 million across three funds, has attracted global institutional limited partners for over a decade. The firm, which pioneered investing in space-related technology companies, has evolved into a broader focus, which includes companies that leverage advanced technologies. SpaceVest typically leads expansion-round syndicates in US-based companies. For more information about SpaceVest, visit www.spacevest.com. About Axxon Capital Axxon Capital is a private equity firm that targets women and minority businesses. It seeks enterprising entrepreneurs with big ideas and commitment to growth. Axxon funds a range of companies, but typically seeks to build alliances with emerging and established businesses operating in the New Economy. For more information please visit www.axxoncapital.com. About Axiom Venture Partners Founded in 1994, Axiom Venture Partners provides capital and strategic assistance to rapidly growing high technology companies. With over $200 million in committed capital under management, the firm currently is focusing on investments in information technology and health science. Axiom is investing expansion stage capital throughout the United States. Axiom's portfolio has had multiple IPO's and acquisition transactions contributing to its ranking in the top quartile Quartile A statistical term describing a division of observations into four defined intervals based upon the values of the data and how they compare to the entire set of observations. Notes: Each quartile contains 25% of the total observations. of venture funds in returns. The firm is currently investing Axiom Venture Partners III. For more information visit, www.axiomventures.com. About Egan-Managed Capital Egan-Managed Capital is a New England-based venture capital firm that provides a unique funding alternative for early-stage high-technology start-ups. Leveraging more than 80 years of combined financial and business management experience, Egan-Managed Capital delivers field-tested strategies, first-hand technology expertise and hands-on management involvement. Founded in 1997, the firm currently manages two funds with $143 million in committed capital. For more information on Egan-Managed Capital and its team please visit www.egancapital.com. About Shiprock Capital Shiprock Capital, founded by Richard C. Shipley, Chairman of Shipley Company LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , is a private equity firm that invests in the development of early and expansion stage technology companies in the fields of information technology and the physical sciences. For more information, contact shiprockcapital@earthlink.net. About Adams, Harkness & Hill Technology Ventures Adams, Harkness & Hill Technology Ventures is a venture capital firm closely affiliated with the technology franchise of leading emerging growth investment bank, Adams, Harkness & Hill. The firm invests nationwide in four segments of technology: Software, emerging growth semiconductors, technology manufacturing solutions, and technology services. For more information, visit www.ahhventures.com. |
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