Sydney-based semiconductor company Morse Micro raises $140 million to progress Wi-Fi technology

Sydney-based fabless semiconductor company Morse Micro is ushering in a new era for its Wi-Fi HaLow technology and plans to use the $140 million in Series B funding to revolutionise Australia’s digital future.

Leading Japan-based ASIC and SoC services company, MegaChips Corporation, led the funding round, with participation from existing investors including Blackbird Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Skip Capital, Uniseed, SpringCapital, and Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull among others. 

The capital raised will be used to achieve scale and demand for Morse Micro’s Wi-Fi HaLow technology, focusing on the design of new solutions, while accelerating the go-to-market strategy for its existing Wi-Fi HaLow chips and modules.

Morse Micro claims its Wi-Fi HaLow “is the first Wi-Fi standard tailored to meet the needs of the IoT, making it a superior alternative to traditional Wi-Fi alternatives and many other wireless technologies”.

Launched in 2016, Morse Micro was founded by Wi-Fi pioneers and innovators, Michael De Nil and Andrew Terry, joined by the original Wi-Fi inventor Professor Neil Weste and wireless industry veterans, whose teams designed Wi-Fi chips for billions of smartphones.

Morse Micro co-founder and CEO Michael De Nil says the company is now at “an exciting inflection point”.

“With MegaChips’ financial backing and robust manufacturing and sales support, Morse Micro will be poised to achieve our goal of revolutionising IoT connectivity with our growing portfolio of Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs, modules, software and development tools,” he said.

“MegaChips shares our vision to revolutionise connectivity and build enduring Wi-Fi HaLow solutions for the future. We are delighted to partner with them, and for the support we’ve had from all of our investors, as we take the next step forward in our company’s journey toward market scale and leadership.”

MegaChips group president and CEO Tetsuo Hikawa says Morse Micro’s leadership team has already made a “tremendous impact” on the Wi-Fi industry. 

“MegaChips pursues strategic partnerships and investments with promising startups like Morse Micro that have innovative ideas, cutting-edge applications and are expanding their businesses in areas such as industrial IoT, wireless communications and energy control,” he said.

The multimillion-dollar investment also brings with it a strategic business partnership between Morse Micro and MegaChips, which will see the two companies engage in joint sales and promotion activities to grow the market for Wi-Fi HaLow solutions.

In addition to manufacturing Morse Micro’s IEEE 802.11ah compliant semiconductors and modules, MegaChips will provide sales support and new distribution channels that will deliver scale across the region.