Indice Semiconductor, Maker Of Energy-Saving Chips, Raises $6M Series A

Indice Semiconductor has raised a $6 million Series A to focus on marketing its chips, which use an algorithm that the company says can help appliances save energy. The round was led by Allen Alley, the co-founder and former CEO of Pixelworks and included participation from Australian venture capital firm rampersand.

The capital will be used to increase Indice’s sales team in the U.S. and Asia Pacific region in order to target original equipment manufacturers and product designers. So far, Indice has marketed chips with its Continuous Sigma algorithm to the lighting industry, but is planning to expand to amplifiers, electric vehicles, and the Internet of Things.

Indice Semiconductor, which was founded in Melbourne, Australia, also announced that it is relocating its headquarters to Tualatin, Oregon, and has hired Alley as its executive chairman.

Indice Semiconductor hopes to stand apart from its peers (including Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, and Cirrus Logic) with its patent-pending Continuous Sigma algorithm. So far, Indice has sold 1 million chips using Continuous Sigma.

Continuous Sigma improves performance in digital-to-analog (DAC/ADC) applications, which means that it can be used in hardware in verticals ranging from connected devices and electric vehicles to lighting and amplifiers.

“Continuous Sigma is a simpler encoding method than the commonly used Successive Approximation Registar (SAR) found in many wearable devices, and has a higher performance than the Delta Sigma encoding method (around since the 1970s), which is found in audio applications, power supplies, and motor control,” a spokesman for the company told TechCrunch. “For the end user this could mean anything from more effective noise cancelling headphones than what we currently see on the market to smarter, more efficient wearable devices.