News Article
Milne Chips In With Elonics Investment
A consortium comprising Wolfson co-founders Milne and John Carey, as well as technology investors Liz Sharpe, John Gray and Irene Buchanan, together provided $1m (£500,000) of additional funding to Elonics.
David Milne, the co-founder and former chief executive of Wolfson Microelectronics, is the latest in an impressive list of high profile Scottish investors to pump money into Elonics, a semiconductor design firm based in Livingston, to help develop a new microchip for mobile TV.
Earlier this year, Kwik-Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer and Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter also invested "a significant amount" of cash into a £2m funding round for Elonics. An Elonics spokesman said that to date the company has funded to the tune of $5m. Founded in 2003, Elonics yesterday said its focus was on using its disruptive technology to deliver world-beating products to its customers.
The spokesman added that the new cash injection would be used to "transform the company from a design house into a semiconductor company selling products".
Elonics' technology is based on its unique silicon based radio frequency microchip, called DigitalTune. The idea behind DigitalTune is to provide a low cost tuner chip that will place it in an ideal position to take advantage of future growth in the market for mobile TV.
David Srodzinski, Elonics chief executive, said: "We are delighted to be able to win the support of David Milne, John Carey and the other investors. "It is an endorsement of our belief that our strategy of targeting the emerging market for broadcast TV and radio for portable consumer electronics devices with flexible CMOS RF tuners is fundamentally sound. This is an exciting time for the team at Elonics as we begin to put in place the foundations to grow a global semiconductor business."
The company's natural market is the manufacturers of portable and hand-held devices, such as smart phones and laptops, and Srodzinski previously told The Herald that negotiations were ongoing with firms in the US, South Korea and Taiwan.
However, the spokesman yesterday said: "Because we are in the process of moving from prototype to large scale production, those negotiations have had to tread water for a while."
Earlier this year, Kwik-Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer and Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter also invested "a significant amount" of cash into a £2m funding round for Elonics. An Elonics spokesman said that to date the company has funded to the tune of $5m. Founded in 2003, Elonics yesterday said its focus was on using its disruptive technology to deliver world-beating products to its customers.
The spokesman added that the new cash injection would be used to "transform the company from a design house into a semiconductor company selling products".
Elonics' technology is based on its unique silicon based radio frequency microchip, called DigitalTune. The idea behind DigitalTune is to provide a low cost tuner chip that will place it in an ideal position to take advantage of future growth in the market for mobile TV.
David Srodzinski, Elonics chief executive, said: "We are delighted to be able to win the support of David Milne, John Carey and the other investors. "It is an endorsement of our belief that our strategy of targeting the emerging market for broadcast TV and radio for portable consumer electronics devices with flexible CMOS RF tuners is fundamentally sound. This is an exciting time for the team at Elonics as we begin to put in place the foundations to grow a global semiconductor business."
The company's natural market is the manufacturers of portable and hand-held devices, such as smart phones and laptops, and Srodzinski previously told The Herald that negotiations were ongoing with firms in the US, South Korea and Taiwan.
However, the spokesman yesterday said: "Because we are in the process of moving from prototype to large scale production, those negotiations have had to tread water for a while."
