Ubicom Secures $7 Million in Series 5 Financing Date:   Monday , February 02, 2009 Gangesh Ganesan, Ubicom CEO, a provider of 32-bit embedded, multithreaded processor and software solutions for communications and media applications, is betting on $5.1 billion 32-bit embedded processors market with its Series 5 financing round totaling $7 million. Investors who participated in the round include August Capital, Mayfield Funds, Levensohn Venture Partners, Lehman Brothers Ventures, and Investcorp Technology Partners. Ubicom began in 1996 as Scenix, making 8-bit high-performance microchips. Currently the California based player is a recognized industry leading provider of processors for 802.11N wireless routers. With a worldwide workforce of 83, Ubicom is now opening its platform to address adjacent market segments, including integrated access devices (IADs), enterprise access points, security VPN routers, VoIP products, digital photo frames, and digital media players. “Due to our broad market reach, we have a number of competitors playing in the same market space, but we mostly compete against 32-bit processors from companies like NXP, Freescale, Texas Instruments, and others,” says Ganesan. According to the market research firm DataBeans, the 32-bit processors market is forecasted to grow at 10 percent CAGR over the next five years. “Our StreamEngine 7000 family of products, based on the UBICOM32 architecture, will be targeting the broader 32-bit communications, media, and embedded markets. We have many exciting new solutions and customers that will be announced in 2009,” he says. However, the company considers digital picture frame as its next big market, which is seen by some as becoming a repository for all digital content in a house. Now that more frames are sold with Wi-Fi connectivity they’re able to do more, and Ubicom’s Stream Engine software and chips can help manage some of the complexities associated with adding another networked device to private homes. Ubicom’s chips, which are in D-Link’s Wi-Fi Internet Picture Frames and others, may help get one’s grandma online by automatically connecting to a Wi-Wi network and automatically linking to his user account — though it’s hard to say how far a chip company can push its ease of use.