IDEA Fund Partners, a venture capital firm providing seed and early stage financing to technology companies throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, announced its recent investment in Sarda Technologies, Inc. The investment will enable the company to accelerate product development and evaluation.
Based in Durham, North Carolina, Sarda is a fabless semiconductor company focused on reducing power loss in dc-dc voltage converters. Sarda’s technology results from a radical reimaging of the basic field effect transistor geometry and enables the switches used in converters to achieve ultra low power loss and very high switching frequencies. The Sarda team is led by semiconductor industry veterans Bob Conner and Jim Vorhaus, both of whom have significant Fortune 500 company and startup experience.
Sarda was awarded an NC IDEA grant in the Spring of 2011, receiving funds to assist in the patenting of its technology. During the grant process, Sarda created an advisory board that included NC IDEA Venture Advisor and IDEA Fund Partners Managing General Partner, John Cambier. Sarda is the fifth NC IDEA grant recipient that has attracted investment from IDEA Fund Partners, joining Oncoscope, NextRay, Automated Insights (formerly StatSheet) and Argyle Social.
"We have gotten to know Bob and Jim better throughout the NC IDEA grant process and have been very impressed by their technology and progress to date," said John Cambier. "We are happy to now have them in our venture portfolio and look forward to working alongside the team as they bring to market a truly disruptive technology."
In February, TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc., a specialist RF solutions supplier and technology innovator, announced that its Foundry Services division was supporting Sarda to bring a new line of high-efficiency converter switches to the global marketplace. This support will allow Sarda to utilize TriQuint’s foundry line for the development and production of their product. "TriQuint’s foundry business enables Sarda to quickly and cost-effectively develop a power semiconductor line," said Sarda CEO and Co-Founder Bob Conner.
"The grant funding from NC IDEA provided validation of our early business plan, needed funds for intellectual property protection and enabled us to get to know the team at IDEA Fund Partners at a deeper level," said Bob Conner. "With this financing, we look forward to supplying customers with our switch products."
