Chipone Technology has secured over 6.5 billion yuan ($1 billion) in a Series E financing round that pushed the valuation of the Chinese chip designing firm to over 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion).
The Series E round was led by Oceanpine Capital, a Beijing-based hard tech investment firm. Chinese smartphone brand Vivo and a wide range of Chinese institutional investment companies, such as UNIC Capital Management, CCB Private Equity Investment Management, GGV Capital, and Prosperity Investment, participated in the round.
Its existing shareholders including China’s CITIC Private Equity (CPE), Beijing Singularity Power Investment Management, Silk Road Huachuang Investment Management, and others also re-upped in the round.
The investment is the latest big-ticket transaction in a Chinese chip design house, following months of hectic dealmaking in the country’s semiconductor sector.
A total of 51 semiconductor startups in Greater China amassed about $2.1 billion of financing in Q3 2021. The investment size was 3.5 times more than that of Q2, while the quarterly deal count nearly doubled in the field, according to proprietary data from DealStreetAsia.
Globally, an ongoing supply crunch for chips across a number of industries, such as cars, consumer appliances, personal computers, and smartphones, is expected to drag on till 2022, according to JPMorgan. That could further boost investor sentiment in the sector.
Founded in 2008, Chipone designs, develops and sells chips that enable holistic display panel solutions. Its chips offer functions ranging from timing controllers and display drivers to power management and fingerprint recognition.
Beijing-based Chipone, which has operations in both China and the US, serves clients including display panel manufacturers, smartphone makers, and LED display companies at home and abroad.
“The proceeds from this new round will be used to increase our continued investment in R&D, team expansion, and new technology development. It will help the company build long-term partnerships with key suppliers and provide a stable, secure, and sustainable chip supply chain to the global display industry,” said Zhang Jinfang, chairman and CEO of Chipone, in the statement.
Source: Oceanpine Capital
