Battery system integrator Micro Power Electronics Inc. has received $5 million in a second round of venture capital investment. In May, Micro Power received $9 million in venture funding, bringing total venture investment to $14 million in less than six months. Palisades Ventures, Los Angeles, was lead investor in the second round, and was joined by Sierra Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif., which was the lead investor in the May round.
Micro Power’s focus is on one of the electronics industry’s fastest growing sectors—power solutions for portable, mission-critical equipment. The company’s battery systems power is close to 70% of all portable automatic external defibrillators in the market today. Micro Power is the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered supplier of custom battery systems for portable medical equipment. The company also serves the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) data management markets, as well as certain portable sectors within the communication equipment market.
"There has been a surge of venture investment in battery technology over the past six months, reflecting the urgent need for battery systems technology to catch up with the number of portable systems coming into the market," said Paul D’Addario, Palisades’ senior managing director. "We invested in this sector because we expect exceptional returns over the next few years. After assessing the investment opportunities in portable battery systems, we selected Micro Power. We decided to lead this round because of their dominant market position with the handheld AIDC and portable medical equipment manufacturers."
"Existing shareholders benefited from an increase in valuation for the company," said Greg Love, Micro Power’s CEO. "This valuation increase was based upon Micro Power’s expanding customer base, 50% increase in annual revenue and enhanced technical capabilities. This investment will help Micro Power further expand its national sales operations, make strategic additions to its engineering and marketing teams, double existing product integration capabilities and strengthen the company’s capabilities in charger technology."
According to growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the combined markets for portable medical devices, AIDC systems, wireless point-of-sale terminals and rugged handheld computing represent a $1 billion opportunity for custom battery solutions by 2008. “Portable electronic devices demand a next-generation power source. Micro Power is able to provide a unique solution to satisfy this demand for additional power with its custom high performance battery systems, in addition to offering ultrasafe battery systems for critical applications,” said Sara Bradford, industry manager in the power supplies and batteries group at Frost & Sullivan.
For more information, visit www.micro-power.com.