Crescent leads investment round in Omiino

Crescent Capital leads investment round in new semiconductor development firm

Omiino develops unique silicon devices for high speed telecommunications network equipment vendors.

Crescent Capital, the Belfast, Northern Ireland based venture capital firm, today announced that it has led a seed-round investment in Omiino Ltd. Omiino is developing a new generation of silicon for telecommunications network equipment vendors. This new breed of semiconductor devices will allow telecommunications operators to rapidly introduce new revenue earning data solutions.

Crescent has invested £750,000 ($1.5m) in the pre-development round. The total round value was £1.05m ($2.1m) – with the balance of funds provided by the management team, private investors and bank funding under the small loans guarantee scheme.

According to Deirdre Terrins of Crescent Capital, “There is a shakeout occurring in the semiconductor market. So-called application-specific silicon requires vast up-front investment and verification costs. For telecommunications network equipment vendors the return on investment is getting longer for such devices given the relatively low production volumes. Omiino has developed a means of offering much more flexible and attractive silicon solutions to equipment vendors by building their offerings on the most advanced programmable chips.”

According to Gary Hamilton, Omiino’s CEO, the telecommunications industry needs to look for other means of delivering future integrated circuits that deliver the new features and higher performance demanded by an increasingly networked society. Omiino solutions are delivered faster, and overcome the cost and flexibility barriers represented by current solutions. “We’re delighted that Crescent Capital has recognised that our team’s experience in telecommunications and silicon design gives us a unique ability to tap into this significant market opportunity.”

He continued, “Omiino develops unique FPGA-based silicon for telecommunications equipment vendors. We apply industry and silicon design understanding to create market defining industry-specific integrated circuits. We like to call it integrated intelligence. With Crescent’s support we will be able to start developing our initial product offerings and development road-map. We’re already in dialogue with several equipment vendors who have shown considerable interest in our product plans. We’re really looking forward to working with Deirdre and the rest of the Crescent team.”
About Crescent Capital

Crescent is the largest venture fund manager in Northern Ireland. It has the largest fund under management and it fields the most experienced team of investment professionals with a track record of investing successfully in the region.

The fund’s focus is investing in early stage and development capital investments in IT, manufacturing and tradable services businesses that are either headquartered in Northern Ireland or have the majority of their operations here.

Opportunities to invest in a “Northern Ireland only” vehicle are very limited and by investing in Crescent Capital II LP, investors gain exposure to a balanced portfolio of emerging companies with potential for high growth throughout Northern Ireland.