Sequoia Communications Raises $25M in Series E Funding; Motorola Increases Stake in RF Transceiver Company.

SAN DIEGO -- Sequoia Communications, the RF semiconductor company setting new benchmarks in multi-mode design and integration, today announced the company has successfully secured $25 million in its Series E financing. The funding allows the company to bring its previously announced SEQ5400 chip into full volume production. The funding also enables the company to add to its existing set of baseband partnerships and extend the benefits of polar technology by accelerating development of next generation products employing Sequoia Communications' FullSpectra(TM) architecture.

The company's Series E funding round, led by BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), resulted in a significant increase in company valuation. The round was over-subscribed by current and new investors. The major existing investors increased their shareholding in the company, including BlueRun Ventures, Tallwood Venture Capital, and Motorola Inc., through Motorola Ventures, its strategic venture capital arm.

"Renewed commitment by such a high quality group of investors shows strong support of Sequoia Communications' technology, team and market opportunity," said Dave Shepard, CEO of Sequoia Communications. "The market demands innovative approaches to create true multi-mode RF solutions; our unprecedented application of polar modulation across all modes is a key differentiator that establishes Sequoia Communications as a leader in RF design."

Sequoia Communications has developed the first and only HSDPA/WEDGE (HSDPA/WCDMA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM) transmitter using its proprietary polar modulation architecture for all modes. Through the use of a unified polar transmit architecture and a truly monolithic receiver, the SEQ5400 is the first true single-chip RF transceiver that integrates all RF functionality to the baseband interface -- uniquely positioning the company to address power, size and cost concerns of multi-mode handset developers.

"Sequoia Communications has made significant progress in developing a common RF architecture as demonstrated by the introduction of its first product, the SEQ5400," said Corporate Vice President of Equity Investments for Motorola, Warren Holtsberg. "We believe that products based on this architecture will set new performance benchmarks for multi-mode handsets. Reducing the cost, size, and power consumption of multi-mode handsets is of great importance to Motorola."

As part of the round, Rob Schwartz, a principal at Third Point Ventures, will join Sequoia Communications as a new board member. "Third Point Ventures is particularly enthusiastic about our investment in Sequoia Communications," said Schwartz. "Their technology, roadmap and team have really impressed us."

About Sequoia Communications

Sequoia Communications is a fabless RF semiconductor company setting new benchmarks in multi-mode design and integration. The FullSpectra common architecture, developed by Sequoia Communications, allows a single-chip transceiver to support multiple air interface protocols -- enabling effective communications across numerous wireless standards, including WCDMA, EDGE, GSM/GPRS, GPS, WiFi, WiMAX and more. The company recently announced SEQ5400, a single-chip HSDPA/WEDGE (HSDPA/WCDMA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM) transceiver, the industry's first multi-mode chip using a common architecture. The line of single-chip, multi-mode RF products created by Sequoia Communications will address the three key handset metrics: lowering cost, reducing size and increasing battery life for mobile devices. For more information, please visit: www.sequoiacommunications.com