Israeli Fabless Semiconductor Company Percello Announces $12 million Series B financing


Granite Ventures and Vertex Venture Capital Co-Lead Series B Financing Round, T-Mobile Venture Fund Joins as Strategic Investor

RA’ANANA, ISRAEL-/Wi-Fi Technology News/- Percello Ltd., an Israeli fabless semiconductor company, today announced the completion of a $12 million Series B financing. The company is developing baseband processors for the 3G and LTE femtocell market. A femtocell is a small cellular access point, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments, and the femtocell concept is considered a revolution in mobile network architecture.

The round was co–led by US-based Granite Ventures and Israel-based Vertex Venture Capital. The company also welcomed T-Mobile Venture Fund from Germany as a strategic investor. The capital raised will be used primarily to complete product development and to initiate sales and marketing activities.

The company's $6 million Series A was led by 7-Main Ltd. This capital was used to establish the team and the foundation of Percello.

“Percello is a market enabler via the PRC6000, which offers the highest level of integration, the most advanced features and the most efficient power consumption at the best price,” said Percello CEO Shlomo Gadot. “These are all key product attributes necessary for new mass market cellular technologies.”

“We are very pleased to welcome such strong partners to our board. Granite Ventures, Vertex Venture Capital and T-Mobile Venture Fund together with the existing investor 7-Main Ltd understand and share our vision,” said Gadot. “We believe that having this international representation from North America, Israel and Europe provides us not only with considerable financial support but also with essential business expertise and a valuable network across the globe.”

“Vertex strongly believes in femtocells and their benefits to mobile operators and consumers,” said Manuel Timor, Partner at Vertex Venture Capital. “We think that Percello has all it takes to become the market leader. The company’s products solve the femtocell industry’s needs for feature richness and cost effective solutions. The company’s unique technology, large potential market and experienced team made it easy for Vertex to invest in Percello.”

“Granite is convinced that femtocells will have a profound impact on how wireless networks are designed and utilized – giving wireless operators a strong position in the digital home and presenting subscribers with mobility options they’ve never imagined.” said Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures. “We are impressed with Percello’s execution and vision. By identifying the femtocell opportunity early and assembling an accomplished engineering team, Percello is well suited to enable mass market adoption of this important new technology.”

“T-Mobile considers femtocells as an important technology going for mobile broadband,” said Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Krath, Senior Vice President of Radio Network Engineering and Quality, T-Mobile International says. “The baseband chip that Percello develops is the most critical component related to quality and mass market compatible price points. Percello's team has a strong track record and we highly welcome them strengthening the growing femtocell ecosystem.”

A femtocell is a small cellular access point, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments. It connects to the service provider’s network through the consumer’s DSL, cable or fiber optic broadband connection and allows service providers to extend service coverage and capacity indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. The consumer will benefit from excellent mobile coverage, bandwidth and additional services at landline rates.
Percello was founded in 2007 by an experienced team led by Shlomo Gadot, former co-founder and co-CEO of Modem Art (was acquired by Agere in May 2005 for $145M), Rafy Carmon, VP R&D, and Yoav Volloch, as VP Product Management. Percello's team has vast experience in UMTS cellular technology as well as developing low cost and low power SoC.

About Percello:
Percello is a fabless semiconductor company developing digital baseband processor chips, the main component inside the femtocell CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), for the 3G and LTE femtocell market.
Percello’s first chip, PRC6000, is the first worldwide SoC (System on a Chip) solution dedicated for the emerging 3G UMTS femtocell market. The chip is a highly integrated device supporting all femtocell backhauling functions such as timing, security and others. PRC6000 is compliant to 3GPP Rel 7 baseline and is capable of delivering 21.6Mbps downlink and 5.76 uplink.
For more information about Percello, please visit http://www.percello.com

About Vertex Venture Capital

Vertex Venture Capital is a unique top-tier Israeli VC with $600 million under management, a strong international investor base, an experienced multi-disciplinary team of professionals and an impressive track record of exits through M&A and IPO. Vertex provides unparalleled possibilities for companies in facilitating potential growth, business opportunities and leveraging synergies throughout Israel, Europe, USA, Japan and Asia. Vertex invests in Israeli and Israel-related companies in early stages of development in information networking and communications systems, software and components, digital media and enterprise software.

For more information about Vertex Venture Capital, please visit http://www.vertexvc.com.

About Granite Ventures

Granite Ventures has been helping early-stage technology companies build solid foundations for success since 1992. Granite has managed over $1 billion in venture capital and has invested in more than 100 private companies. They partner with promising and successful entrepreneurs to create businesses that have a competitive edge, and help those businesses achieve category leadership. More information can be found at http://www.granitevc.com.

About T-Mobile Venture Fund

The T-Mobile Venture Fund is managed by T-Venture, the venture capital entity of Deutsche Telekom. The activities of the T-Mobile Venture Fund provide T-Mobile with an innovative edge and strong commercial synergies. T-Mobile International is one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. As one of Deutsche Telekom's three strategic business units, T-Mobile concentrates on the most dynamic markets in Europe and the United States. For more information about T-Venture and the T-Mobile Venture Fund, visit http://www.t-venture.com.

About 7-Main Ltd

7-Main Ltd is the family office and investment arm of Ms. Ruthi Wertheimer. The core investments of 7-Main Ltd focus on direct investments as a long-term investor.