The NRFC today announces that it will take a $35 million stake in Morse Micro as part of the semiconductor manufacturer’s Series C funding round, making sure that next-generation Wi-Fi technology is developed and commercialised at home in Australia.
The NRFC’s funding will be used to accelerate growth and develop Morse Micro’s next generation Wi-Fi HaLow solutions.
NRFC CEO David Gall said, “Morse Micro is Australia’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and a home-grown Australian success story.”
“Wi-Fi was invented and patented by CSIRO scientists in 1993, and we are proud to be investing in an Australian company that is once again enabling next generation Wi-Fi connectivity for the rest of the world.”
“Morse Micro employs over 130 people in Australia, including employees in regional New South Wales, and our investment will diversify the Australian economy, strengthen the nation’s sovereign manufacturing capabilities, and build local expertise in semiconductor design and innovation.”
Morse Micro was founded in 2016 by former Broadcom engineers Michael De Nil and Andrew Terry, who now serve as Morse Micro’s CEO and CTO respectively. The company produces secure, long-range, low power Wi-Fi HaLow microchips, which have a range of IoT applications across consumer, agriculture, mining, renewables, transport, and smart metering.
Morse Micro’s Wi-Fi HaLow chips allow Wi-Fi signals to penetrate walls and other obstacles, dramatically extending the range of Wi-Fi coverage from its current limited range to one kilometre in urban environments, or up to 16 kilometres in rural environments. The company has been recognised internationally for its Wi-Fi HaLow technology, and its patent portfolio consists of 36 patent families across these areas.
Morse Micro co-founder and CEO Michael De Nil said, “This funding is another strong vote of confidence in our mission to be the number one wireless IoT chip company in the world. The future of IoT depends on connectivity that is long-range, power-efficient, secure and delivers on throughput - and that’s exactly where we are leading. With this raise, we are accelerating our expansion and preparing for the next phase of our company's growth.”
The company’s existing investors include Analog Devices founder Ray Stata, leading Australian venture capital firms (including Blackbird Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, and Uniseed), and institutional investors.
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Media contact: media@nrf.gov.au
About the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC)
The NRFC is Australia’s sovereign investor in manufacturing capability. It has $15 billion to invest through direct loans, equity investments and loan guarantees across seven priority areas: renewables and low emissions technologies; enabling capabilities; defence capability; transport; value-add in resources; value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and medical science.
The NRFC’s role is to invest in Australian businesses and projects that design, refine and make to transform capability, grow jobs and a skilled workforce, and diversify our economy. The NRFC is a corporate Commonwealth entity, established by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Act 2023 (NRFC Act) in September 2023.
For more information, visit nrf.gov.au
About Morse Micro
Media contact: Maggie Radford-Hill, maggie@morsemicro.com
Morse Micro is the leading Wi-Fi HaLow fabless semiconductor company, revolutionizing IoT connectivity with award-winning technology. Headquartered in Sydney, with global offices in the United States, Taiwan, China, India, Japan and the United Kingdom, Morse Micro is driving the adoption of next-generation long-range, low-power Wi-Fi HaLow solutions. Its first generation MM6108 and newly launched MM8108 silicon deliver the fastest, smallest, lowest-power, and longest-range Wi-Fi HaLow connectivity on the market.
Morse Micro's Wi-Fi HaLow technology is gaining unstoppable momentum globally, enabling connected devices to achieve ten times the range, covering 100 times the area of traditional Wi-Fi networks. This advancement is transforming IoT connectivity across various sectors, including smart homes, industrial automation, and smart cities.