SCALINX, Semiconductor Fabless Focusing on Signal Conversion Chips Secures 10.5 Million Euros Funding

Funding to Drive European Leadership in 5G Communication Infrastructures, and Radar Markets

Paris, France, February 3, 2021– SCALINX, a fabless semiconductor company specialized in advanced signal conversion chips, today announced it has secured global financing of 10.5 million euros. The investment validates recent progress and will enable SCALINX to meet growing market demand, drive the technology into new markets, increase capacity to support new customers, and further expanding its team. SCALINX aims to be a leading supplier for the French and European defense markets and a key player in the communications industry and the 5G wireless communication transformation.

The equity round is led by WaterStart Capital, an accelerator fund and investment firm from NCI, and Normandie Participations, another venture capital fund, both specialized in financing highly innovative startups. The round also involves a group of top French banks' private equity subsidiaries including BNP Paribas Développement (the investment arm of BNP Paribas), CEN Innovation (the investment arm of Caisse d’Epargne), and Unexo (the investment arm of Crédit Agricole). The round was coordinated by SE13 Advisors, a French independent advisory firm in Venture & Private Equity.

Hussein Fakhoury, SCALINX Founder, and CEO say, “This investment not only validates what we have built so far but also enables us to continue pursuing our vision of becoming a key European supplier of high-speed data converters with wider bandwidth, lowest power consumption, and higher integration level. This is an important milestone for the company, as this investment will give us the means to achieve our goals. We are excited about the tremendous endorsements we have received from our first customers and our new investors as we deliver the lowest power signal conversion solutions for some of the most demanding applications.”

“We are excited to add SCALINX to our portfolio and delighted to support the company in its development alongside the other investors. We were impressed by the quality of the team, SCALINX’s unique expertise with state-of-the-art products along an ambitious technological roadmap in a rapidly growing market. With this first round of support, we see SCALINX driving European leadership and becoming a major player in the communications and defense industries, in a market dominated by non-European companies,” said Yves Guiol, Venture partner at NCI.

The advent of digital sensors and mmWave communications is pushing suppliers of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs) towards more integration and reduced power consumption while demand for wider analog bandwidth is continuously growing. SCALINX Data Conversion IC solutions based on their proprietary Smart Conversion CORE (SCCORE^TM) technology address these needs. SCALINX innovative solutions improve energy efficiency for a wide range of applications requiring high-speed and medium-to-high resolution data converters such as communication infrastructures, RADAR, and Test & Measurement equipment.

Additionally, SCALINX was selected as one of the first 2020 winners of the call for projects within the framework of FRANCE RELANCE, a major French recovery plan investing in the most promising fields that will drive the economy and create the jobs of the future.

About SCALINX

Founded in 2015, SCALINX is a fabless semiconductor company with solid experience in the design and supply of silicon solutions enabling wideband and low power signal conversion in applications such as wired and wireless communications, test & measurement equipment, and radar, among others. SCALINX is headquartered in Paris, France with additional design centers in Caen and Grenoble.

About WatertStart Capital

Managed by NCI (a French portfolio management company in private equity, with 300 m€ under management), WaterStart Capital is a VC fund investing in Seed / Series A rounds and providing free accelerator program (Advisors, Consultants, Mentors, Business Connections).