Elonics Raises $9 million Series B Investment

September 6, 2010 -- Elonics Ltd., the CMOS RF tuner company, announces  the closing of a £6.1m ($9.5m) of Series B investment round led by Scottish Equity Partners (‘SEP’) and supported by Octopus Ventures (‘Octopus’), a division of Octopus Investments,  alongside a number of existing investors. 

Elonics, founded in 2003, has achieved a breakthrough in RF tuner technology, solving the perennial problem of combining high performance with low power and cost.  Elonics patented DigitalTuneTM radio tuner chip technology platform, designed in CMOS, significantly improves signal path management and can be easily configured to support television and radio standards across the globe.

David Srodzinski, Elonics’ Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are very pleased to welcome SEP and Octopus Ventures in this round of financing.  Their investment allows us to pursue our growth strategy, targeting the global television and radio market with our world-leading CMOS RF tuner technology.  We have built up an excellent position in the silicon tuner market and this additional funding allows us to accelerate our sales momentum and grow the product portfolio.” 

SEP Partner Stuart Paterson who led the deal, said: “Elonics has created a world class product which twins high performance and low cost and it is also the greenest tuner on the market, consuming 1/50th of  the power of traditional solutions. We expect the global tuner market to be worth in excess of $700 million per annum as the market transitions from 50 year old metal can technology to silicon chips.  Silicon tuner sales are growing rapidly thanks to rising demand not just for set-top boxes but for more tuners per box to cope with added features. Elonics is led by a strong team including successful entrepreneurs who previously founded Wolfson Microelectronics, and who took it to become a highly successful international public company.”

Luke Hakes of Octopus, added: “Innovation and imagination at Elonics have made this management team and their business stand out in this market . As a leading investor in growing high technology businesses, Octopus identified Elonics as a high performing company with a promising future . We believe they have the right mix of talent, product  and drive to lead the tuner technology market.”

Chairman of Elonics (and former CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics), David Milne said, “It is an exciting time for Elonics as we look to use this significant new investment to drive the business forward.  I believe that the company’s ability to attract this new investment highlights the quality of the Elonics team, the attractiveness of the product proposition and the growth prospects for RF tuner technology in the global television and radio business. I am pleased to have the involvement of SEP, a leading technology venture capital company in the UK, and an early investor in Wolfson and to have the participation of Octopus, , a leading investment group and one of the most active private investors this year in small and growing businesses.”

The investment will allow Elonics to accelerate the expansion of the overseas sales team with the opening of regional offices in Taiwan and China.  In addition, the company will be embarking on a major recruitment drive aimed at bolstering its engineering team at its main UK base in Livingston.

About Elonics - “Wireless Silicon for a Digital Age”

Elonics Ltd. is a fabless mixed-signal semiconductor company specialising in the design and development of multi-band radio frequency (RF) IC products. Founded in 2003 and based in Livingston, United Kingdom, Elonics has developed an innovative radio frequency architecture called DigitalTune™ that is the foundation for a family of silicon tuners for television and radio.

Elonics innovative technology allows manufacturers to design high performance consumer electronics products with unrivalled performance, power consumption and low system cost.  Elonics’ first product family is the E4000 series of silicon tuner solutions targeted at the reception of multi-standard digital TV and radio. Website: www.elonics.com

About Scottish Equity Partners

SEP is a leading European venture capital firm with offices in London and Glasgow. Twice named UK Venture Firm of the Year, it helps entrepreneurs to create and build world-class companies, SEP targets technology companies with high growth global potential and works closely with them to build value.  SEP’s previous investments include some of the UK’s most successful technology companies including Wolfson Microelectronics (LSE:WLF), a fabless semiconductor company which earned SEP a return of 70 times its original investment when it listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2003. SEP also backed  CSR (LSE:CSR); and Atlantech Technologies (NASD:CSCO). Exits include the $275 million sale of energy services company MTEM to Petroleum Geo-Services (ASA:PGS) (OSE and NYSE: PGS).  Its current portfolio is spread across the UK and Europe and includes wireless communications leaders picoChip www.picochip.com; and ipaccess www.ipaccess.com, Gigle www.Giglenetworks.com, a pioneer in multimedia home networking solutions; medical IT solutions expert Cmed www.cmedresearch.com; cancer therapeutics company Biovex www.biovex.com; flight search engine Skyscanner www.skyscanner.com; and IT analytics company Sumerian www.sumerian.com. It also includes companies specialising in ground-breaking oil and gas technology including ArkEx www.arkex.com; Fotech www.fotechsolutions.com and Deep Casing Tools www.deepcasingtols.com. To learn more about SEP visit www.sep.co.uk

About Octopus Investments

About Octopus Investments Ltd (www.octopusinvestments.com)

Established in 2000, Octopus Investments is a leading investment specialist, providing investors with access to a growing range of innovative investment solutions including a discretionary management service, a range of single manager funds; equity OEICS, venture capital trusts, enterprise investment schemes and inheritance tax solutions. Since inception, Octopus has grown its customer base to over 22,000 with funds under management of £1.7 billion. Octopus was voted ‘VCT Provider of the Year’ in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Octopus was voted the top UK financial services company to work for in the Sunday Times survey of ‘Best 100 SMEs to Work For’ in 2008 and was re-listed in the top 100 companies for 2009.  Additionally, the Company won the ‘Badenoch & Clark Business of the Year’ award and the ‘3i Growth Strategy of the Year Award’ at the 2008 National Business Awards, Regional Finals, South East of England, in July 2008, and the ‘Business of the Year’ award at the 2009 National Business Awards, Regional Finals, South East of England, in July 2009. Octopus has over 140 staff with 30+ investment professionals.

About Octopus Ventures (www.octopusventures.com)

Octopus Ventures, a division of Octopus Investments, manages circa £250 million in VCT and EIS funds as well as the £30 million Octopus Capital for Enterprise (OCfE) Fund. Octopus typically invests from £500,000 to £5 million per investment and is a leading player in the UK venture capital industry. Octopus is a generalist investor, preferring to back exceptional entrepreneurial teams rather than specific sectors. Octopus looks for businesses which can create, transform or dominate an industry and is focused on the UK.