picoChip has raised another $20m in equity funding on top of the $20m it raised last November, taking the total amount of capital raised by the ten year-old company to $110m. It expects to be cash-flow positive by the end of the year.
picoChip’s existing investors put up the latest round of $20m. They are Intel Capital, Pond Ventures, Samsung, Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild, Atlas, and Highland Capital Partners.
picoChip says it needs the money to expand its offices, take on new engineers and accelerate product development. According to picoChip's vice president for marketing, Rupert Baines,: ""We are looking to expand our 150 headcount by 25-30% The great majority of this expansion will be in design engineering and applications engineering roles." The timeframe is over the next 12 months.
Asked what skill-sets picoChip is looking for, Baines said: "Silicon design and software design as you would expect. But also we are increasingly seeing the need for stronger systems capability so that is an area of focus. We are also growing our applications engineering team, helping our customers get to market more quickly."
Asked where the new hires would be located, Baines replied: "Predominantly they will be in Beijing and Bath. We don't have a hard and fast geographical split - we will recruit where the skills are available, and where our customers have requirements."
picoChip, the leading supplier of femtocell ICs, says that twelve cellular network operators have launched femtocell products, the majority of which use picoChip ICs. It is also a major supplier of Wimax silicon.
Asked when picoChip expected to be cash-flow positive, Baines replied: "We are close to cash positive today. We expect to be cash positive in 4Q 2010."