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Sydney-based Morse Micro, Australia’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, has raised US$59 million ($88 million) in a Series C round that aims to cement the company’s position as the world’s leading wireless Internet of Things (IoT) chip company.
The latest round, which follows a $30 million Series B in 2022, was led by Japanese semiconductor group MegaChips and supported by National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, Blackbird, Main Sequence, Uniseed, Ray Stata, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull and Startmate.
The round was also backed by several institutional investors including Hostplus, NGS and UniSuper, bringing the company's total funding since inception to more than $290 million.
Morse Micro, which provides Wi-Fi HaLow silicon solutions for the IoT market that can reach 10-times the range of traditional Wi-Fi networks, will use the new capital to accelerate expansion into international markets and scale production of its Wi-Fi HaLow chips.
The company, which was founded in 2016 by Michael De Niland Andrew Terry, also plans to use the funding to support the ecosystem shift toward IoT 2.0, a new phase of the Internet of Things that is characterised by high-throughput, long-range and highly scalable connectivity for IoT devices.
"This funding is another strong vote of confidence in our mission to be the number one wireless IoT chip company in the world," says Michael De Nil, the CEO of Morse Micro.
"The future of IoT depends on connectivity that is long-range, power-efficient, secure and delivers on throughput, and that's exactly where we're leading.
“With this raise, we are accelerating our expansion and preparing for the next phase of our company's growth."
Morse Micro says the funding builds on “significant momentum” for the company and Australia's semiconductor industry and is aligned with the announcement this week of the release HaLowLink 2, the company’s global, next-generation evaluation platform.
Morse Micro earlier this year also launched a second-generation System-on-Chip (SoC), expanded its ecosystem partnerships, delivered new reference designs and achieved mass production with leading OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).
The company says these milestones underscore Morse Micro's role in driving the global shift from proof-of-concept IoT to full-scale, industrial and consumer deployments.
"We are proud to continue our support for Morse Micro as it leads the global transition to IoT 2.0,” says Tetsuo Hikawa, CEO of lead investor MegaChips Group.
“For a number of years, we have worked in partnership with Morse Micro to increase production and sales of its flagship Wi-Fi HaLow products. This investment reflects our belief that the time for Wi-Fi HaLow is now.
"Morse Micro is uniquely positioned to accelerate the adoption of next generation IoT solutions. We are confident this investment positions the team and technology for international leadership and future success on the public markets."
While Morse Micro is headquartered in Sydney, the company has offices in the US, Taiwan, China, India, Japan and the UK where it is driving the adoption of next-generation long-range, low-power Wi-Fi HaLow solutions.
The company’s first generation MM6108 and newly launched MM8108 silicon are said to deliver the fastest, smallest, lowest-power and longest-range Wi-Fi HaLow connectivity on the market.
"Morse Micro is Australia's largest semiconductor manufacturer and a home-grown Australian success story,” says National Reconstruction Fund Corporation CEO David Gall.
“Wi-Fi was invented and patented by CSIRO scientists in 1993, and we are proud to be investing in an Australian company that is once again enabling next generation Wi-Fi connectivity for the rest of the world.
"Morse Micro employs over 130 people in Australia, including employees in regional NSW, and our investment will diversify the Australian economy, strengthen the nation's sovereign manufacturing capability, and build local expertise in semiconductor design and innovation."
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