Femtocell chip developer Percello raises $12m

Fabless semiconductor start-up Percello Ltd. has raised $12 million in its second financing round. Vertex Venture Capital and Granite Ventures of the US led the round, together with T Mobile Ventures (the investment arm of Deutsche Telekom AG cellular unit T Mobile). Ruth Wertheimer's 7-Main Ltd. led the first financing round in the company.

Percello was founded in 2007 and has raised $19 million to date, including the current round. The company is developing baseband processors for the 3G and LTE femtocell market. A femtocell is a small cellular access point, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments, and the femtocell concept is considered a revolution in mobile network architecture.

Percello CEO Shlomo Gadot said that proceeds from the current round would finance development of the company's first processor and to expand business activity.

Vertex partner Manuel Timor added, "Vertex strongly believes in femtocells and their benefits to mobile operators and consumers. We think that Percello has all it takes to become the market leader."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 9, 2008

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