Elonics Raises £6.1 million Series B Investment

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Elonics Ltd., the CMOS RF tuner company, announces the closing of a £6.1m ($9.5m) of Series B investment round led by Scottish Equity Partners (‘SEP’) and supported by Octopus Ventures (‘Octopus’), a division of Octopus Investments, alongside a number of existing investors.

Elonics, founded in 2003, has achieved a breakthrough in RF tuner technology, solving the perennial problem of combining high performance with low power and cost. Elonics patented DigitalTune™ radio tuner chip technology platform, designed in CMOS, significantly improves signal path management and can be easily configured to support television and radio standards across the globe.

David Srodzinski, Elonics’ Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are very pleased to welcome SEP and Octopus Ventures in this round of financing. Their investment allows us to pursue our growth strategy, targeting the global television and radio market with our world-leading CMOS RF tuner technology. We have built up an excellent position in the silicon tuner market and this additional funding allows us to accelerate our sales momentum and grow the product portfolio.”

SEP Partner Stuart Paterson who led the deal, said: “Elonics has created a world class product which twins high performance and low cost and it is also the greenest tuner on the market, consuming 1/50th of the power of traditional solutions. We expect the global tuner market to be worth in excess of $700 million per annum as the market transitions from 50 year old metal can technology to silicon chips. Silicon tuner sales are growing rapidly thanks to rising demand not just for set-top boxes but for more tuners per box to cope with added features. Elonics is led by a strong team including successful entrepreneurs who previously founded Wolfson Microelectronics, and who took it to become a highly successful international public company.”

Luke Hakes of Octopus, added: “Innovation and imagination at Elonics have made this management team and their business stand out in this market . As a leading investor in growing high technology businesses, Octopus identified Elonics as a high performing company with a promising future . We believe they have the right mix of talent, product and drive to lead the tuner technology market.”

Chairman of Elonics (and former CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics), David Milne said, “It is an exciting time for Elonics as we look to use this significant new investment to drive the business forward. I believe that the company’s ability to attract this new investment highlights the quality of the Elonics team, the attractiveness of the product proposition and the growth prospects for RF tuner technology in the global television and radio business. I am pleased to have the involvement of SEP, a leading technology venture capital company in the UK, and an early investor in Wolfson and to have the participation of Octopus, , a leading investment group and one of the most active private investors this year in small and growing businesses.”

The investment will allow Elonics to accelerate the expansion of the overseas sales team with the opening of regional offices in Taiwan and China. In addition, the company will be embarking on a major recruitment drive aimed at bolstering its engineering team at its main UK base in Livingston.