ACT leads €21m fund raising for UK-based chip firm

Irish venture capital firm ACT has led a €21 million fund raising round for a company developing technology that will allow television broadcasts to mobile phones.

ACT Venture Capital revealed yesterday that it acted as the lead investor in a $28 million (€21 million) fund-raising round for Frontier Silicon, a UK-based company pioneering chip development for mobile and multi-media consumer products.

The Irish company has invested half the $28 million. The other backers include existing Frontier Silicon shareholders, Apax Partners, the biggest leading European venture capital firm, London-based AltaBerkeley Venture Partners, and Bluerun Ventures, a global operation formally known as Nokia Venture Partners.

Luxembourg-based Quilvest, a $6 billion fund, is the fifth partner in the deal. It is a new investor in Frontier Silicon.

Frontier Silicon has developed two new products, the Apollo chip and Kino chip, that allow mobile phones to receive digital television broadcasts.

This is the next step in the evolution of mobile technology, and has the potential to deliver massive sales to mobile network operators.

According to ACT partner Kieron Branagan, Frontier Silicon is the leading developer in this field.

"There is already a lot of activity in terms of putting in the infrastructure for this, and it is already happening in South Korea," he said. "We'll see even more activity in the next quarter or two."

Frontier Silicon's chief executive, Anthony Sethill, a former director of Amstrad, founded the company in early 2002. Yesterday he said it was pleased to attract ACT as a backer. "With this investment and our road map for product development and marketing, we aim to make mobile television a reality," he said.

Frontier develops and sells technology for receiving and processing digital signals. Its clients are mainly manufacturers of consumer electronics, car radios and stereos, and mobile phones.

ACT is the State's biggest venture capital management company. Its managing partner, former AIB executive Niall Carroll, founded the business in 1994.

Since then, it has raised a total of €350 million for investment in developing businesses in Ireland and Britain. It is currently in the process of investing €171 million it raised from backers between 2001 and 2002. The company is mainly focused on information and communications technology and fields like biotechnology.