China 5G chip designer Cygnus raises $100m

BAI Capital, Walden International, and existing investors CDH Venture and Growth Capital, GGV Capital, and Green Pine Capital Partners also participated. CDH led the CNY 400m (USD 63m) pre-Series A last year.

Founded in 2020, Cygnus focuses on the development of 5G connection processor chips, related peripheral chips, and integrated application chips. Its describes its vision as “5G internet connecting everything.”

The company services domestic and overseas customers in areas industries such as industrial modules, in-vehicle modules, and edge computing. It has four R&D centres across Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

Commercial development of 5G is gaining momentum. As of August 2021, more than 1m 5G base stations had been built in China, accounting for more than 70% of the global total, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. The number of 5G terminal connections in the country exceeds 400m, underlining the importance of internet-of-things (IoT) communication chips.

Recent activity in this space includes SoftBank Vision Fund II leading a CNY 1bn Series C for Shanghai-based Eigencomm in January. Eigencomm’s debut IoT chip became China's biggest seller by new market orders in its first year of release. Sales orders for January reached 4m units. The start-up claims to be partners with 80% of major domestic module manufacturers. It also cooperates with Qualcomm in overseas markets.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• semiconductor
• Matrix Partners
• CDH Investments Management
• Walden International
• GGV Capital
• Green Pine Capital Partners
• manufacturing