Ultra-wideband, a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless technology, has been the apple of venture capitalists' eyes lately. Tzero Technologies late Monday became the second maker of UWB chips to announce funding in a week. The five-year-old startup, which makes video transmission chips, said it raised an $18 million Series C round led by the CID Group, with participation from Silicon Valley-based Tzero's current investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, August Capital, US Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners and VentureTech Alliance.
The deal follows a $24 million Series D funding announced last week by Wisair Ltd. and led by Susquehanna Growth Equity LLC. Wisair's products enable UWB wireless traffic over personal computers, peripherals and consumer electronics devices, allowing for much greater bandwidth than Wi-Fi products currently available.
Tzero's semiconductor products help beam high-definition video between digital video recorders, set-top boxes and displays. But each company's announcement exemplifies the growing interest, especially because standard battles in this technology area are more or less settled, in UWB and its capabilities to beam bandwidth intense data, video and high-end audio around the digital home. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis
See March 3 press releaes from Tzero
See Feb. 26 story from Tech Confidential
See April 2006 story from TheDeal.com
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