This round of investment extends the company’s resources to deliver on its mission to transcend the performance, power, and sustainability limitations of legacy short-range wireless platforms. Proceeds will be used to accelerate customer acquisition and partner engagements, as well as product development for major markets spanning mobile electronic devices and smart sensors.
"With strong backing from Idealist Capital and existing investors, SPARK Microsystems is well positioned to execute on its vision of creating high-performance wireless networks for a broad range of products with significantly longer battery lifecycles and reduced waste for a more sustainable, environmentally friendly future," says Fares Mubarak, CEO, SPARK Microsystems. "This new financing marks a pivotal milestone in the mass market commercialization of SPARK’s UWB technology, equipping us to meet massive demand for breakthrough performance in short-range wireless connectivity."
"Idealist Capital embraces investment opportunities in innovators like SPARK Microsystems who developed a breakthrough technology to enable greener, energy efficient electronic devices without compromise in performance," says Steeve Robitaille, Co-Managing Partner, Idealist Capital. "We are thrilled to support SPARK for its future growth. SPARK’s UWB technology holds tremendous promise for battery-less, wireless devices powered by energy harvesting technologies."
Since SPARK released its Software Development Kit (SDK) for its SR1000 Series UWB transceivers in 2022, many manufacturers have signaled to the company their intentions to bring to market high data rate, low power, and low latency UWB communication links. SPARK transceivers – complemented with SDKs and reference designs – are designed into customers’ next-generation products in consumer and IoT sensor markets, with strategic engagements in progress with tier-one technology suppliers.
The SPARK SDK includes a comprehensive set of APIs to facilitate development of various software applications without requiring direct access and control of the UWB transceiver. The SDK provides multiple simple and concise application examples to educate developers on using SPARK core libraries, such as the SPARK Wireless Core and the SPARK Audio Core, which bring additional functionality and accelerate development time. Combined with various example application code included in the SDK, this enables more efficient development of new products using SPARK UWB communication technology.
"We’re pleased to see a new investor join the company and share our belief that Spark’s cutting-edge technology can enable a significant energy consumption reduction in a wide range of applications. This financing will help accelerate the deployment of Spark’s next-generation ultra-wideband technology on a global scale," says Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner at Cycle Capital. "We look forward to contributing to SPARK Microsystems’ growth as we are convinced the team has developed an industry leading product that will enable electronic devices to be more energy efficient."
SPARK Microsystems’ UWB short-range wireless technology dramatically reduces energy consumption for connected devices. Its performance attributes are essential for enabling the next generation of wireless connected mobile devices and sensors optimized for high energy efficiency, driving a significant reduction in battery usage and replacement. Among its recent milestones, SPARK has expanded its collaboration with industry standards organizations (IEEE, UWB Alliance, FiRa Consortium) and built a global sales and distribution network while winning accolades and investments from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) for improving energy efficiency in wireless devices.
www.sparkmicro.com
