Jim Jones Joins Discera's Board of Directors as Company Aims to Capture $3.5B Market
SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 26, 2007 -- Discera, Inc., the leader in MEMS-based
oscillators, announced today the completion of a $17.5 million Series C
round of funding led by Scale Venture Partners. Discera, which recently
began shipping its first products for direct replacement of quartz crystal
oscillators for timing components in electronics devices, will use the
funding to support increased production, distribution and marketing. Scale
Venture Partners joins previous investors 3i, Partech International and
Ardesta LLC. New investor Horizon Ventures also participated in the round.
The company also announced that Jim Jones, Managing Director with ScaleVP,
has joined Discera's board of directors. Jones focuses on emerging
semiconductor and MEMS component companies and enterprise systems.
Investors are excited about Discera because quartz crystal is considered to
be one of the final hurdles of Moore's law of scalability. In use for over
50 years for timing applications, quartz oscillators have reached their
limit in scalability, cost and manufacturing technology and the electronics
industry has long awaited a reliable, scalable, cost-effective alternative.
The traditional crystal timing market is estimated to be well over a $3.5
billion market.
"ScaleVP has invested in multiple MEMS companies during the last few years
due to the market acceptance of this breakthrough technology," said Jim
Jones. "Discera is at an exciting point, as it has now proven that silicon
can replace quartz in the timing market. Given the size of the market,
Discera's leadership in commercializing silicon resonators, the partners
that Discera has signed on, and the proven track record of the management
team, the company has the ability to become truly disruptive in the
semiconductor market."
Discera recently began shipping its MOS1 oscillator successfully after
passing stringent reliability tests, with volume production starting in
2Q07. Discera's technology consists of a silicon MEMS resonator and an ASIC
embedded within a conventional QFN plastic package or ceramic package.
Discera is offering the product directly through a worldwide set of channel
partners and through industry leaders such as Vectron International.
"This round is a validation of Discera, our position in the market and the
maturity of our products," said Tom Willey, President and CEO, Discera.
"With this funding and the product and channel ready, Discera can rapidly
capture market share and build a fast-growing business in the timing
market."
Discera has been successfully sampling its product since last year. This
past November, Discera demonstrated its technology as a plug-and-play
direct replacement of quartz crystal in a camcorder device -- the first
MEMS demonstration in a consumer device. Key target applications for
MEMS-based timing devices are PCs, DVD players, gaming consoles, set top
boxes, camcorders, PDAs and cameras as well a variety of industrial
products. For more information please contact Discera or visit
www.discera.com.
About Discera
Discera is a fabless analog semiconductor company that offers tiny, high
performance silicon resonators for the frequency and timing control
markets. These resonators act as the heartbeat or pulse for a variety of
devices from consumer products such as cameras and MP3 players to
specialized equipment for the military. The company's PureSilicon™
resonator technology is a fundamental building block that offers, according
to Semico Research, "a better mousetrap" for creating fully integrated, low
cost, small form factor wireline and wireless products, such as
oscillators, filters, and RF components. Unlike crystal based oscillators,
Discera's PureSilicon™ based CMOS oscillators can be integrated into
other CMOS-based circuits. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose,
California, Discera is a privately held company with investments from
Ardesta, Partech, 3i, and Qualcomm Ventures. More information is available
at www.discera.com.
About Scale Venture Partners
Scale Venture Partners employs a thesis-based strategy to identify
innovative development-stage technology and healthcare investments. The
ScaleVP team helps technology and healthcare companies accelerate their
growth and become more valuable to entrepreneurs, investors and consumers.
Based in Foster City, California, the ScaleVP team collectively offers
decades of technology and venture industry experience to development-stage
companies in hardware, software, healthcare and medical devices.
Representative portfolio companies include Alimera, Frontbridge, Glu
Mobile, Good Technology, Monolithic Power Systems, Omniture, Orexigen,
Placeware, ScanSafe, Seattle Genetics, Somaxon, Wayport and Xceive. For
more information, please visit www.scalevp.com.
About Horizon Ventures
Horizon Ventures is a Los Altos, CA-based venture capital partnership with
$165M under management. They invest in data and telecom systems, wireless
networks, enterprise and technical application software, Internet tools and
infrastructure, and semiconductors. Their current portfolio includes iWatt,
Inc., NuCore Technology, Advanced Microstructures, and Chelsio
Communications. For more information, visit www.horizonvc.com.
Contact Information: Media Contacts for Discera:
Venkat Bahl
Discera, Inc.
408-432-8600 x228
venkat@discera.com
Emilie Harris
Lois Paul & Partners
512-638-5321
emilie_harris@lpp.com
Media Contact for Scale Venture Partners:
Carol Sacks
Tenor Communications
650-520-8261
carol@tenorcom.com