MKSemi Completes Pre A+ Round of Financing, Led By Lightspeed China Partners and Gaorong Capital

Mauna Kea Semiconductors (MKSemi), a low-power ultra-wideband (UWB) company, recently announced the completion of a Pre A+ round of financing, raising over 80 million yuan (about $12.6 million). This round of financing was led by Lightspeed China Partners and Gaorong Capital, and was followed by Qiming Venture Partners and Ivy Capital.

Established in 2019, MKSemi was led by several senior experts in the field of digital-analog mixed signal design and has been focusing on the design and development of UWB chips and solutions. This round of financing will be used for product R&D, market expansion and employee recruitment.

Recently, the company also released its latest UWB wireless SoC (system on a chip) product, the MK8000. The chip has high performance, ultra-low power consumption and broad system integration which means it is able to meet the needs of smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) products.

In addition, MKSemi has recently established cooperative relations with Infineon, the world’s leading semiconductor chip solution provider, and ThinkSeed Systems, an industrial or automotive system integrator, to jointly launch secure positioning IoT product solutions based on UWB and BLE technologies.

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Ali Bukhari, marketing director of IoT computer and wireless products for Infineon, spoke about the deal: “We are working with MKSemi to build reasonable solutions for various location-based application scenarios, including asset tracking, PKE (public key encryption), warehouse management and location tags.”

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology can be traced back to 1960s and was made for fast data transmission at low power spectral densities through ultra-large bandwidths. At present, Apple, Samsung and other tech giants have begun to integrate UWB technology in their smart products, ranging from phones and speakers to other mobile accessories.

According to ABI Research, a market research company, the UWB industry is growing rapidly. It is estimated that by 2026, the shipment of products with built-in UWB technology will increase from 143 million units in 2020 to 1.3 billion units.