Senscomm – a fabless semiconductor startup, founded in 2018 headquartered in Suzhou, China, announced it has successfully raised over 300M RMB last month in an oversubscribed Series A2-round financing. The round has been led by strategic financial investor PingAn, followed by several other well known investors and existing investors such as USI, SL Capital, Glory Ventures, Oriza, Gallizul, Leader VC.
Senscomm was the first company in mainland China developing Wi-Fi 6 chipsets by veterans from the Silicon Valley and South Korea. Since founding, it has evolved to become the leading Wi-Fi 6 & Wi-Fi 7 chipset vendor in mainland China and has been successfully sampling its fully in-house developed Wi-Fi 6 chipsets to key customers, expanding its world-class engineering team to over 120+ employees, which includes world-class engineers for RF/Analog, core baseband technology, SoC and Software.
The new fund will mainly be used to prepare mass production of several chipsets within this year, in addition to sampling China’s first Wi-Fi 7 ready AP Router chipset, as well as to further expand its engineering, marketing and sales teams worldwide.
Besides mass producing several Wi-Fi 6 Station SoCs, the company is developing cost-effective royalty-free Next Generation Wi-Fi 7 ready AP SoCs based on fully in-house developed baseband & RF technology, which are in strong demand in China as well as worldwide.
Senscomm’s Product families include the Station Wi-Fi segment for IPC, STB, TV, and notebook; the AIoT Wi-Fi segment, industrial applications as well as the broadband AP Wi-Fi segment for home & enterprise gateways, routers, and mesh applications.
“Senscomm highly appreciates the recognition of our new strategic investors who have rigorously tested our first sample chipsets and decided to invest into Senscomm and leading our latest round of investment.? We believe together with our valued partners such as Xiaomi, USI, etc., Senscomm is well positioned to develop market driven products and lead the way to become the leading company for connectivity chipsets”, said Michael Lee, CEO of Senscomm.
Hoi Tung, Chairman and CEO of China Ping An Insurance Overseas (Holdings) Limited, said: “Looking back at the past decade, the rapid development of global Internet has benefited from continuous iteration and evolution of basic communication facilities. Wireless communication technologies, such as 5G and Wi-Fi, have profoundly impacted our lives. All wireless devices require Radio Frequency and Base Band parts to transmit wireless signals. With its top-ranked technical teams in these fields, Senscomm has successfully taped out and mass-produced its first Wi-Fi 6 2×2 Station chip last year, showing its strong technical strength and team cohesion. We expect Senscomm to further promote the development of domestic wireless communication technology, providing consumers with faster and more stable services and enhanced experience. Also, Ping An Overseas Holdings will promote deeper integration of Senscomm into Ping An’s ecosystem.”
Mr. Jinpeng Shi, SVP of Strategic Investment for USI commented, “USI has vast expertise in the application of SiP technology for the designing and manufacturing of RF modules, serving some of the best-known consumer electronics brand globally. Senscomm’s team has a strong R&D background coupled with a profound understanding of the market, and a leadership with global mindset. USI wishes to deepen collaboration with Senscomm. By leveraging Senscomm’s strong base band technology self-development capability, its great value-for-money Wi-Fi 6 product and pipeline products, USI wishes to collaborate with Senscomm on its product applications and turn innovative technologies into value for customers.
Senscomm believes that its biggest advantage is of having developed the entire chipset in-house, including the entire baseband (PHY/MAC) as well as in-house developed RF via our world-class R&D team worldwide. Whereas most fabless startups within mainland China usually licensing the core Wi-Fi IP. Although this licensing approach leads to much faster time-to-market, however to become a leading Tier-1 vendor, such approach has significant limitations to achieve worldclass Wi-Fi performance, create competitive roadmaps as well as difficulties to adapt to the various different wireless applications, optimizing and ensuring worldwide interoperability with other Tier-1 vendors’ Wi-Fi chipsets/devices/routers.
Senscomm is also the only startup in mainland China being actively engaged in the international IEEE standardization as well as actively increasing its patent portfolios on next-generation Wi-Fi 7 standard.
Same as all technologies, Wi-Fi is keeping evolving to be better. Every 4~5 years in average there is a new Wi-Fi standard being ratified and getting adopted, and each newer standard is compatible with the old ones. WFA(Wi-Fi Alliance?) introduces a new naming system to identify Wi-Fi generations by a numerical sequence in 2018 which is easier to remember and use. So WFA defined Wi-Fi 5 for IEEE802.11ac (ratified in 2014), Wi-Fi 6 for IEEE802.11ax (ratified in 2019), and Wi-Fi 7 for IEEE802.11be (expected to be ratified in 2024). The changes from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 are mostly about the improvements at “efficiency” and “coexistence” (such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and etc). The changes from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7 are mostly about “very high speed” (such as 4K QAM, 320MHz bandwidth and MIMO with 16 space streams). Just like all evolving technologies, it is expected the Wi-Fi 7 would be adopted by key major features first and then optional features to follow.
About Ping An Insurance Overseas
China Ping An Insurance Overseas (Holdings) Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (“Ping An Group”). Ping An Overseas Holdings and its subsidiaries are the major overseas investment and asset management business platforms of Ping An Group. With outstanding overseas investment research and portfolio management capabilities, Ping An Overseas Holdings is committed to providing customers with a series of overseas investment products, asset management and consulting services, covering capital market investment services, including stocks, fixed income, funds in hedge funds and Open-end/closed-end fund, ETF and special account management in artificial intelligence and quantitative investment, as well as providing alternative investment services, including global private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate fund investment, co-investment and direct investment.
About USI
USI (SSE: 601231, A constituent of CSI300 Index), Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., is a global leader in electronic design and manufacturing as well as a leader in the field of SiP (System-in-Package) modules. USI provides D(MS)2 product services: Design, Manufacturing, Miniaturization, Industrial software and hardware Solutions, and material procurement, logistics and maintenance Services. With Asteelflash, USI has 27 sales, production and service locations across four continents of Asia, Europe, Americas and Africa, and offers customer diversified products in the sectors of wireless communication, computer and storage, consumer, industrial, medical and automotive electronics worldwide. USI is one of the subsidiaries of ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (TWSE: 3711, NYSE: ASX) which is a world-leading provider of semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test in the world. For more information, please visit www.usiglobal.com or follow us on LinkedIn or WeChat.
About Senscomm
Senscomm Semiconductor Co., LTD is a fabless wireless semiconductor company headquartered in the central area of CBD by Jinji Lake in Suzhou Industrial Park, and has owned subsidiaries in South Korea, USA, Singapore, and Ireland to integrate global talent and resources. Senscomm’s vision and mission are reinventing wireless connectivity and human-computer interactions to connect the world. Senscomm had won numerous honors and awards: Suzhou Industrial Park Leading Talent, Jinji Lake Craftsman, Gusu Leader, Jiangsu Province Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent, National Unicorn Enterprise, Park Nursery (Key Enterprise), …, etc. For more information, go to www.foxconncom.cn.
On June 29, 2021, the 2021 China Potential Unicorn Enterprise Report Conference and Suzhou Cooperation and Exchange Conference were held at the Suzhou Jinji Lake International Conference Center, attracting more than 100 potential unicorn enterprises and financial institutions across the country to participate, Xu Kunlin, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jiangsu Province Committee and Secretary of the CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. According to the “2021 Research Report on China’s Potential Unicorn Enterprises”, there are a total of 425 companies on the list in 2020, and a total of 39 companies in Suzhou are on the list.
Senscomm got selected as 2020 China National Level Potential Unicorn Company. #325
Unicorn refers to the rapid development of enterprises, the number of rare, favored by investors and other attributes of entrepreneurial enterprises, potential unicorn as the backup of unicorn enterprises, is more potential and growth of the future star, and is the blazer of the new track and the scene of the eruption of the promoter.
The CEO of Senscomm Semiconductor Co., LTD personally attended and took the stage to receive the award, thanking everyone for the efforts and saying, “The potential is still a long way from the actual $1 billion company, but the entire team of the company will do their best to achieve the unicorn enterprise goal as soon as possible.”
Scientific and technology innovation is talent oriented. Key talents can promote the development of an industry, especially in semiconductor industry. Since set up, Senscomm attaches great importance to the introduction and training of high-level talents. Our company already got the talent reward in Jiangsu province, Suzhou city and SIP.
Senscomm is awarded Jiangsu Entrepreneurial and Innovative Company, two advanced employees of our company are selected as the Jiangsu Innovative Talents.
Besides, Senscomm earns the title of Gusu Leading Talent Company in 2020.
In addition, Senscomm is selected as the SIP Leading Talent Company in 2019.
What’s more, Senscomm is awarded the Jinji Lake Technicians Company in 2019.
These honors recognize the R&D capabilities and talent competitiveness of Senscomm. As the innovator of Wi-Fi 6 chipsets, devoted to the solution of lower cost, smaller size and higher performance of chip-sets, Senscomm insists on independent innovation. We recruit the high-end talents around the world, meanwhile cultivate the local talents. Thriving semiconductor industry by talents and promoting both industry development and talent progress.
Senscomm Semiconductor Co., LTD (“SENSCOMM”) announces the completion of the A+ round of financing of more than 150 million Yuan led by SL Capital,?Oriza Holdings and other funds. Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund and Glory Capital continued to make additional investments. After the completion of this round financing, Senscomm will expand the deploy of product lines, recruit a world-class R&D team and accelerate the designing and launch of Wi-Fi 6 station and access-point SoC chips with leading performance to meet the strong demand for new generation Wi-Fi technology in the consumer electronics market.
Founded in July 2018, Senscomm Semiconductor is a wireless chip design company headquartered in Suzhou Industrial park, it also has R&D offices in Shanghai, Seoul and Silicon Valley. The core team has successfully developed and mass-produced dozens of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular 4G/LTE wireless SoC chips worldwide. As new generation of information technology high-tech enterprises, the company and its R&D personnel have won the honors of 2020 Jiangsu Entrepreneurship and innovation Talent Enterprise, 2020 Gusu Leading Talent Enterprise, 2019 Suzhou Industrial Park Leading Talent Enterprise, 2019 Jinji Lake Craftsman Leading Enterprise and other honors. The team has extensive experience in Wi-Fi 6 standardization and has been following up on the technologies that will be applied to Wi-Fi 7 in the future. It is extremely capable of becoming a domestic leader in the evolution of Wi-Fi wireless technology.
Since Wi-Fi sixth-generation standard was released at the end of 2019, its new and efficient underlying modem technology can provide faster transmission rates, longer coverage and lower power consumption, and significantly enhance Wi-Fi network capacity, chip solutions using Wi-Fi 6 technology will gradually replace the previous generation of Wi-Fi 4/5. At present, Senscomm has completed the design of the first Wi-Fi 6 chip, and it is expected to achieve mass production in 2021. The product is station-oriented and suitable for application scenarios that require high throughput, such as smart phones, laptops, high-definition TVs and set-top boxes.
At the same time, it is rapidly expanding its team and investing in the development of high-performance Wi-Fi 6 access-point chips, as well as highly integrated and low-power AIoT chips for Internet of Things.
SL Capital founded in 2018, it was jointly initiated and established by South Korean SK Group and Legend Capital. The fund focuses on semiconductor and its upstream and downstream early and growth stage corporate investment. The core team comes from senior investors in the field and former senior managers of semiconductor giant SK Hynix. SL capital manages a dual-currency fund with a total amount of over 2.5 billion RMB. It is headquartered in Beijing and has offices in Shanghai and Wuxi.
Oriza Holdings（http://www.oriza.com.cn/）It is an investment holding company that manages a fund of nearly 100 billion yuan. Its business covers three major sectors: equity investment, debt financing, and investment and financing services. Since its establishment in 2001,?Oriza Holdings has focused on integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. Cloud computing, big data and other emerging industry investment opportunities.
Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund (www.mi.com) It is established in December 2017, it was jointly initiated and established by Xiaomi Group and Hubei Yangtze River Economic Belt Industry Guidance Fund. The fund is an industrial investment platform established by Xiaomi Group to achieve the strategic goal from creating “new domestic products” to promoting “new manufacturing”, aiming to systematically deploy China’s advanced manufacturing industry in the next 10 years. The scope of investment covers the supply chain of mobile phones and smart hardware, the core components of electronic products, new materials and new processes, etc., while taking into account related fields such as smart manufacturing and industrial automation.
Glory Capital（www.glory-ventures.com）It is a leading new-generation information technology industry fund. The fund focuses on mid and early-stage investments in the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Currently, it has invested in more than 50 outstanding funds through the third-phase RMB fund and the second-phase USD fund under its management. Start-up business. Glory Capital’s investors include nearly 20 industry-leading consumer electronics, automotive, storage and other leading companies, a number of well-known funds of funds and many first-line investment institutions.
Senscomm Semiconductor Co., LTD (“SENSCOMM”) announced the completion of Series A financing led by Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund. Investors also include the well-known Glory Capital in the industry. At present, Senscomm Semiconductor will use this funds to expand its world-class engineering team to further invest in research and development and mass production of cutting-edge SoC products based on Wi-Fi 6 technology, and to apply and sell them to consumers, enterprises and the Internet of Things market.
Founded in July 2018, Senscomm Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor design company headquartered in Suzhou Industrial Park. Its world-class founding team comes from Silicon Valley and South Korea which has a deep accumulation in the semiconductor industry. The core team has successfully been developed and mass produced more than 20 projects about Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / cellular 4G wireless SoC chipsets worldwide. In addition, the team has extensive experience in Wi-Fi 6 standardization and is expected to be a leader in the evolution of current and future wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi 6.
SENSCOMM has one of the strongest R&D engineering team in China including several Ph.Ds from world-class universities with each leader having over 20 years of commercial chipsets experiences including working for world’s top wireless semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung, SK Telecom, GCT Semiconductor, etc. The team is currently designing the most advanced Wi-Fi 6 chipsets and will quickly ramp up to production to meet the strong growth of the Wi-Fi 6 market worldwide.
Wi-Fi 6 is one of the latest and most efficient Wireless technology providing faster speeds, longer range, lower power consumption and increased densification of enterprise networks via introducing new technologies such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, 1024 QAM and Target-Wake-up Time (TWT). The new technologies introduced via the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology will support the increasing demand of current and future applications such as 4K/8K video, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), smartphones and laptops, as well as consumer and enterprise IoT applications and autonomous driving.
Senscomm is backed by world-class investors such as Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund and Glory Ventures.
Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund (www.mi.com?) was established in December 2017 and was jointly initiated by Xiaomi Group and Hubei Yangtze River Economic Belt Industry Guidance Fund. The fund is an industrial investment platform established by the Xiaomi Group to achieve the strategic goal of “new domestic products” to promote “new manufacturing”, aims to systematically deploy China’s advanced manufacturing within the next 10 years. It is mainly invested in high-quality manufacturing enterprises in China, focusing on tapping investment targets with great development potential in sub-sectors. The investment scope covers the mobile phone and smart hardware supply chain, core products of electronic products, new materials and new processes, and also takes into account smart manufacturing, Related fields such as automation.
Glory Capital (www.glory-ventures.com?) was established in August 2015. It is a leading domestic China-Israel cross-border investment institution. It mainly invests in outstanding early-stage startups in the Internet of things and artificial intelligence in China and Israel. Research and precision sniping, while having an extensive and deep industrial cooperation ecosystem. Glory Capital currently has more than 40 companies in the field of artificial intelligence, Internet of things, and big data in China and Israel, involving IoT chips, sensors, big data, IoT platforms, financial technology and artificial intelligence. Most projects have grown into detailed Leading companies by sector. Glory Capital currently manages three RMB funds and two USD funds. The company and fund shareholders include many first-tier institutional investors and parent funds, and more than ten A-share listed companies.