RF CMOS company raises $20 million in Series D funding

LONDON — GCT Semiconductor Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) a fabless provider of wireless communications chips, has closed a $20 million Series D round of financing, the company said Monday (Dec. 13).

Led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), the round also includes strategic investment from UTStarcom Inc. together with investment from East Gate Capital, Bokwang Investment Partnership, AT Ventures, KGI Partners, and Nexus Investment Corp. Two of the Company's primary financial investors, Parakletos Ventures and Pequot Capital, also participated in the financing. The new capital would be used to continue expansion of the company's manufacturing capabilities and to ramp up for production volume manufacturing of the Company's PHS and GSM/GPRS RF transceivers, GCT said. In addition, the funds would be used to continue development of products based on GCT's proprietary complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) RF technology, specifically focusing on the mobile handset markets for second and third-generation mobile wireless systems, including W-CDMA and EDGE.

"Our strategic investment in GCT Semiconductor represents Samsung's view that RF CMOS represents the way of things to come in RF transceiver design..," said Jay Eum, managing director of Samsung Ventures America, who is set to join GCT's board of directors.

"Already, our RF transceiver ICs have been designed-in to several of our strategic partners' applications," said Kyeongho Lee, president and chief executive officer of GCT Semiconductor, in a statement.

Samsung Ventures America tracks the strategic priorities of Samsung Electronics' core operating divisions, and encompasses investments in semiconductors, displays, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. Samsung Ventures America is currently actively investing from a $300 million fund.