Morse Micro announced the successful close of its Series C funding round, raising $59 million. The round was led by MegaChips with participation from National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC), Blackbird, Main Sequence, Uniseed, Ray Stata, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull, Startmate, and a number of institutional investors including Hostplus, NGS, UniSuper, bringing the company’s total funding to over $193 million to date.
This fresh capital will accelerate Morse Micro’s expansion into international markets, scale production of its Wi-Fi HaLow chips, and support the ecosystem shift toward IoT 2.0, a new phase of IoT characterised by high-throughput, long-range, and highly scalable connectivity for IoT devices.
“This funding is another strong vote of confidence in our mission to be the number one wireless IoT chip company in the world, said Michael De Nil, CEO and Co-Founder of Morse Micro. “The future of IoT depends on connectivity that is long-range, power-efficient, secure and delivers on throughput, and that’s exactly where we’re leading. With this raise, we are accelerating our expansion and preparing for the next phase of our company’s growth.”
The funding comes at a time of notable momentum for Morse Micro and Australia’s semiconductor industry. This week the company is releasing the HaLowLink 2, its global, next-generation evaluation platform. Also this year, the company has launched a second generation System-on-Chip (SoC), expanded its ecosystem partnerships, delivered new reference designs, and achieved mass production with leading OEMs. These milestones emphasise Morse Micro’s role in driving the global shift from proof-of-concept IoT to full-scale, industrial and consumer deployments.
“We are proud to continue our support for Morse Micro as it leads the global transition to IoT 2.0. For a number of years, we have worked in partnership with Morse Micro to increase production and sales of its flagship Wi-Fi HaLow products. This investment reflects our belief that the time for Wi-Fi HaLow is now,” said Tetsuo Hikawa, President and CEO of MegaChips Group. “Morse Micro is uniquely positioned to accelerate the adoption of next generation IoT solutions. We are confident this investment positions the team and technology for international leadership and future success on the public markets.”
“Morse Micro is Australia’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and a home-grown Australian success story. Wi-Fi was invented and patented by CSIRO scientists in 1993, and we are proud to be investing in an Australian company that is once again enabling next generation Wi-Fi connectivity for the rest of the world,” added David Gall, CEO, National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. “Morse Micro employs over 130 people in Australia, including employees in regional New South Wales, and our investment will diversify the Australian economy, strengthen the nation’s sovereign manufacturing capability, and build local expertise in semiconductor design and innovation.”
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