Norwegian ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller maker Energy Micro has secured $13 million from Northzone Ventures and Investinor in its first external funding round.
The fabless firm has concentrated its efforts on cutting power consumption from its two product lines, called Gecko and Tiny Gecko, resulting in 32bit microcontrollers with amongst the lowest current drain in the industry, even compared with 8 and 16bit MCUs.
"The investment will be used to continue the development of Energy Micro's microcontroller product portfolio, to develop and bring to market a family of energy friendly radio products and to expand the organisation and sales channels to support future high growth," said the Energy Micro.
Geckos are aimed at energy metering, home and building automation, alarm and security systems and medical equipment.
"Northzone has followed Energy Micro's progress for more than a year now, and I am very excited about the company's prospects. Energy Micro is the first investment in our recently announced Northzone VI fund, and it gives us a tremendous start," said Torleif Ahlsand, general partner of Northzone Ventures, who joins Energy Micro as chairman.
Investinor investment director Steinar Fossen also joins the board.