Best Buy, Cisco Invest in Wireless HD Chipmaker

SiBeam, Inc., providers of millimeter wave (mmWave) solutions and developer of high-speed wireless communications platforms, has closed $36.5 million in Series D funding led by Foundation Capital.

All of SiBeam's original investors contributed to this round, including U.S. Ventures Partners (USVP) and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) joined by new partners Lux Capital and Hatteras Funds. Best Buy Inc. and Cisco have also contributed strategic equity investments to support SiBeam and propel its second generation 60 GHz wireless high-definition chipsets.

"SiBeam continues to deliver on its promise to bring high-quality, lossless wireless high-definition capabilities to the A/V home entertainment market,” says Adam Grosser, general partner at Foundation Capital.

He says the company has been able to bring in “nearly all leading CE manufacturers as customers through its work with the growing WirelessHD Consortium.”

SiBeam's produces 60 GHz semiconductor solutions with its OmniLink60 technology. The second generation of SiBeam's WirelessHD chipsets, brought into mass production earlier this year, represents the company's movement into mass market applications with low-cost, low-power functionality.

The latest chipsets also support advanced features including 3D, HDCP and DTCP content protection that can be designed into A/V receivers, home theater-in-a-box systems, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media center PCs, and consumer laptops.

John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBeam, Inc., says the company continues to receive “extensive interest from CE and PC manufacturers worldwide” that are eager to integrate its wireless streaming capability into their products.

Based on the WirelessHD standard, SIBeam's semiconductor systems deliver lossless, uncompressed wireless high-definition audio, video and data.