Burbank, CA, March 3, 2004. Microfabrica has closed $15 million in Series B financing, led by international venture capital firm WK Technology Fund. All of Microfabrica's existing investors also participated in this round, including DynaFund Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Partech International, ChevronTexaco Venture Equities, Zone Ventures and Atherton Venture Partners.
The funds will be used primarily to expand Microfabrica's global presence, move into a production mode and expand the capabilities of the company's unique EFAB manufacturing process to cover additional markets. The EFAB process enables complex microdevices and microsystems previously impossible or impractical to manufacture using other approaches.
WK Technology Fund is a leading venture capital firm with over $600 million under management and investments in high tech startups across North America and Asia. Wen Ko, WK chairman and founder, as well as Dr. Keh-Shew Lu, WK partner in charge of worldwide semiconductor investments, will be joining Microfabrica's board of directors. Mr. Ko is one of the pioneers of the VC industry in Taiwan and the founding chairman of Taiwan's Venture Capital Association. Before founding the firm, Mr. Ko was the chairman and president of HP Taiwan for 13 years.
Dr. Lu is a semiconductor industry veteran who joined WK after a 27-year career at Texas Instruments, most recently as senior vice president running TI's worldwide operation in Analog, Logic and Mixed-signal products. Before that, he was Asia president for Texas Instruments from 1994 to 1997.
"We invest in companies that leverage the global trend of outsourcing the design and manufacturing of electronic systems. Microfabrica's focus on building an innovative manufacturing technology with applications from communications to computers make it a perfect fit for our portfolio," said Dr. Keh-Shew Lu, partner at WK. "We feel that the company's combination of breakthrough micro-fabrication technology, the breadth of unique applications and its strong management team have positioned it to revolutionize micro-device manufacturing."
"WK's investment during a tepid investment climate is a testimony to the strength of our technology and market strategy," said Vacit Arat, president and CEO of Microfabrica, Inc. "We have already demonstrated to major customers worldwide the leaps in performance, flexibility and cost that EFAB enables in a variety of compelling applications. With this strong endorsement of WK as well as all of our existing investors, we are now well-positioned to move into a production mode and realize the full potential of the technology."
Microfabrica previously raised over $11 million in its first round of financing in February 2001, followed by an additional $5.7 million in Series A1 financing, led by Partech International in July 2002.
For further information, visit www.microfabrica.com .
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