Energy Micro® has announced that it has secured an investment of $13 million from Northzone Ventures and Investinor in its first external funding round. The investment will be used to continue the development of Energy Micro’s microcontroller product portfolio, to develop and bring to market a family of energy friendly radio products and to expand the organization and sales channels to support future high growth.
Energy Micro launched its first product, the 32-bit EFM32 Gecko microcontroller family, in October 2009. Said to consume a quarter of the energy of existing 8-, 16- or 32-bit microcontrollers, the company says the products have been well received in energy sensitive application sectors, including energy metering, home and building automation, alarm and security systems and medical equipment.
Torleif Ahlsand, General Partner of Northzone Ventures, who joins Energy Micro’s board of directors as Chairman, said, "Northzone has followed Energy Micro’s progress for more than a year now, and I am very excited about the company’s prospects. Energy Micro is the first investment in our recently announced Northzone VI fund, and it gives us a tremendous start. Energy Micro has all the ingredients in place to make it a real success; with differentiated products and technology promising quantum leap performance improvements, and an outstanding management and engineering team. We are proud to be associated with such a dream team."
Steinar Fossen, Investment Director of Investinor, who becomes an Energy Micro board member, said, "Investinor are excited to have this opportunity to join Energy Micro’s strong team. Energy Micro is a great match with Investinor, which invests in early stage Norwegian companies aiming for high growth on a global scale. We look forward to participating in Energy Micro’s future success."
Geir Førre, Founder and CEO of Energy Micro said, "Energy Micro had the enviable position to be able to choose from a number of top tier VCs who all wanted to invest in the company. We are very proud to have Northzone and Investinor as our first external investors and members of the board, and believe they will contribute significantly to the company’s development and growth in the coming years."
