DESIGN PLAY
Startup Chip Designer Joins Cadre of Local Hopefuls
By ANDREW SIMONS
Orange County has a new upstart communications chip designer.
Irvine-based RFDomus Inc., which formed last year, recently closed a small seed funding round of less than $1 million, joining a cadre of other venture-backed chip startups in OC.
Italian telecommunications gear maker Digicom SPA is among the investors in RFDomus’ seed round.
RFDomus is looking to raise a larger round of venture funding but isn’t saying when it plans to do so.
The company comes up with chip designs and seeks to license them to other companies. RFDomus designs radio frequency chips that are used in wireless phones and other devices. The company is in the process of hiring people and developing products.
“It is an exciting time for RFDomus,” said Alberto Mantovani (right), RFDomus’ founder and chief executive.
Mantovani started RFDomus in last October. He left troubled Irvine-based Val-ence Semiconductor Inc., a communications chip designer that closed in June (see related story).
RFDomus has attracted attention among OC’s big chipmakers. It’s newest hire, Kevin Strong (left), is a former executive with Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc.
Strong oversaw the selloff of Conexant’s digital imaging business as Pictos Technologies Inc. last year and became the new company’s chief executive. He also engineered Pictos’ June acquisition by Fremont-based ESS Technologies Inc.
Strong is RFDomus’ vice president of business development.
RFDomus could be coming along at a good time for startup companies. Venture capitalists here have been open to new startups in recent months.
Take Irvine’s Aktino Inc.
The company, started by a group of alums from Pairgain Technologies Inc., now part of ADC Telecommunications Inc., is developing a telecommunications device.
Aktino recently closed a small undisclosed first funding round,$5 million to $10 million, according to venture capital sources.
Menlo Park’s Foundation Capital LLC, the Irvine office of Woodside’s Crosspoint Venture Partners LLC and Corona del Mar’s Miramar Venture Partners LLC are Aktino’s investors.
Aktino’s founders have been coy in giving details about the company. The company’s “products for broadband transmission create a new category of performance and reliability for broadband services over the carriers’ existing access networks,” according to the company.
Another company, Irvine’s Avamar Tech-nologies Inc., also has received funding recently.
Avamar closed on $13 million in venture funding from Goldman Sachs Group, Bench-mark Capital, CMGI@-Ventures and Light-speed Venture Partners, earlier this year.
Avamar’s software and storage devices allow companies to easily back up large amounts of data without “tying up the pipes” of their networks.
The company says its software and data storage servers are a cheaper, more efficient way for banks, government agencies and others to back up data.
Activity among OC startups such as RFDomus has picked up recently.
Venture capitalists also say they’re getting pitches from chip startups, a mainstay of OC tech hopefuls.
“We see a number of entrepreneurs from Broadcom and Conexant progeny,” said Bob Holmen, a partner with Miramar Venture Partners. “There are a number of engineers and designs in the communications space.”
Other chip designers in OC have hit bumpy roads in the past two years as venture capital money dried up.
Irvine-based 3DSP Corp. switched chief executives last November as it sought a final round of funding to see it through to an expected initial public offering.
And last year, Irvine’s Y Media Corp., a designer of digital camera chips, closed its doors after raising about $16 million in venture funding.
