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Beceem closes USD20m in financing to accelerate Wimax product developments

Santa Clara, California-based Beceem Communications, a provider of mobile Wimax chips, has closed a strategic financing round which provides the company with the capital needed to scale

Santa Clara, California-based Beceem Communications, a provider of mobile Wimax chips, has closed a strategic financing round which provides the company with the capital needed to scale production and customer support.

Motorola, one of the leading Wimax solutions providers, through its home and networks mobility business, joined this latest round of financing, along with existing Beceem investors Global Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, KTB Ventures, Walden International and previous strategic investors Intel Capital, NEC, Mitsui and Samsung.

With significant funds remaining from Beceem’s last series, the new round of financing provides capital to allow the company to fund its aggressive mobile Wimax roadmap at a time where the demand for Wimax is accelerating.

‘The Mobile Wimax market is showing increased adoption and the time to scale for success is now,’ says Caroline Gabriel of Rethink Research. ‘Beceem has been an early Wimax enabler and emerged as leader in the mobile space following their success at Clearwire and UQ as announced earlier this year. The additional funding should remove any concerns about Beceem’s ability to focus on Wimax or its long-term viability as a chip supplier in the space.’

‘The ability to raise a significant amount of money in this challenging environment is a clear vote of confidence from our strategic partners and investors,’ adds Babu Mandava, chief executive of Beceem.

‘The investment comes at a time when significant expansion of Wimax deployments in regions around the world is driving a steep ramp of Wimax device shipments. The additional capital will allow us to remain focused on executing our Wimax product initiatives, to support our customers and strategic operator partners and to win new designs worldwide.’

Beceem is a provider of mobile Wimax semiconductors with over-the-air data speeds exceeding 30 Mbps and hand-off times below 50ms.

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