Smart Grid System on Chip Innovator, EnVerv Raises $12M Round of Financing

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec 20, 2011 -- EnVerv Inc., an innovative fabless semiconductor company developing high performance Communications System on Chip (SoC) solutions for the Smart Grid market announces the closing of $12M Series B round of funding led by Benchmark Capital. Previous investors, NEA and Walden International participated in the round also.

"Mission critical connectivity is the cornerstone of building reliable smart grids worldwide and EnVerv's SoC products provide the best solution for smart grid communications," said Bruce Dunlevie, General Partner at Benchmark Capital. "Successful delivery on an array of high performance Power Line Communications (PLC) SoCs in just over a year is a testament to EnVerv's laser focused execution and innovative product design. At Benchmark, we look forward to working with EnVerv's management to help continue with this success."

EnVerv is among a handful of companies working on highly integrated multi-standard (such as G3-PLC, PRIME, S-FSK and EnVerv's TurboPLC(TM)) narrowband PLC modems. EnVerv's PLC enable applications in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Solar Inverters, Active Lighting, Industrial Control & Remote Monitoring markets where emphasis on mission critical communications and reliable data transmission across power line networks are required.

"We are very pleased to see Benchmark join our current investors in support of our vision to make EnVerv the leading provider of energy management solutions in the market," said Shahin Hedayat, Chief Executive Officer of EnVerv. "This investment will enable us to capitalize on our technical achievements to scale customer support and volume production of our high performance multimode PLC chips."

EnVerv's PLC technology has been field trialed worldwide and has received customer acceptance in all major markets.

About EnVerv Inc.

EnVerv is a fabless semiconductor company in the United States with Headquarters in San Jose, California and offices in San Diego and Shenzhen, China. EnVerv's PLC SoC solutions enable high performance communications via Low-Voltage (LV) and Medium-Voltage (MV) power lines with the goal of providing efficient and effective communications means for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) as well as other power line-based smart control and monitoring applications. Base node and gateway devices' core features include: Multimode PLC modem (x--FSK, G3, PRIME and TurboPLC(TM)) and worldwide frequency band support from 10KHz to 500KHz. For more information please visit www.enverv.com .