May 2, 2008 — InvenSense, Inc., provider of MEMS-based motion sensing systems for mobile consumer applications, says it has secured $19 million dollars in Series C venture capital financing.
Earlier this year, InvenSense announced it had released the “world’s smallest” dual-axis gyroscope — another MEMS/microsystem device.
This latest funding round brings InvenSense’s total funding to date to $38 million. It was led by new investor Sierra Ventures, with participation from previous investors Artiman Ventures, Partech International and Qualcomm Ventures. Several strategic investors also participated in the Series C investment round including Foxconn, Inventec Appliances Corp, both from Taiwan; Skylake Ventures from Korea; DoCoMo Capital, a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo Japan, and VentureTech Alliance (whose majority LP is TSMC). Ben Yu, managing director at Sierra Ventures, will join InvenSense’s board of directors.
The latest infusion of investment funding will accelerate the next phase of company growth and evolve both the company business and product strategy. InvenSense will expand sales operations to support new customers and bring a new family of the world’s first integrated motion sensing solutions based on multi-axis MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers with embedded intelligence. These products address the fast-growing need for motion sensors in portable consumer electronics markets that will fuel a host of innovations in next generation applications such as 3D-games and gesture-enabled mobile phones.
“InvenSense has already demonstrated a clear leadership position in mass production of very advanced MEMS motion sensing solutions with wide acceptance by many major consumer electronics companies,” said Ben Yu, managing director, Sierra Ventures. “We are excited about the enormous market potential for InvenSense’s upcoming, innovative solutions and are convinced that InvenSense will be the dominant provider of a new generation of motion sensors for the burgeoning consumer handheld market.”
“Sierra Ventures was the ideal partner to lead this round for us, and we are pleased with participation by a high quality list of Asian strategic investors. We have now solidified our commitment to Asia and to some of the largest consumer electronic companies in the world,” said Steven Nasiri, chief executive officer and founder of InvenSense.