Home Networking Startup Raises New VC Round

Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/5/2006

Entropic Communications, the designer of a home networking digital entertainment chipset, has won a new round of venture capital funding totaling $25 million.

The new funds will be used to accelerate adoption of the company’s product, called c.LINK.

Focus Ventures led the round. Previous investors that also participated in the new round include Anthem Venture Partners, Cisco, CMEA Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital, Dow Employees’ Pension Plan, Echostar, Intel, Mission Ventures, Motorola, Panasonic, Redpoint Ventures, Time Warner and YAS Broadband Ventures.

"To satisfy the increasingly digitally savvy consumer, cable, telco, and satellite operators are aggressively pursuing the growing home networking market," said Steve Bird, general partner of Focus Ventures, in a statement. "We invested in Entropic because they are continuously winning new customers with the best technology for delivering home-wide video while taking advantage of the current infrastructure."

"Our mission has been to enable the service providers and network operators to deploy uninterrupted video throughout the home without interfering with other consumer devices and networking environments already in place," said Patrick Henry, president and CEO of Entropic Communications, in a statement. "A coax-based entertainment network implemented with our chipset delivers the best technical and economic benefits throughout the value chain, from OEM to service provider to consumer."

Entropic recently announced shipment of its 100,000 c.LINK chipset. According to statistics from by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, coax is wired in 95 million of the 110 million television households in the United States. Entropic's c.LINK chipset leverages this existing cable wiring so that service providers and consumers can create a networked environment for video and entertainment that connects their HDTVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), set-top boxes, home gateways and media center PCs - without the need for new wires, costly installation or truck rolls, the company said.

Entropic is a member of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), which is dedicated to proliferating the standard for delivering video over coax, and ensuring interoperability with member products and coexistence with other delivery mediums. Other leading members include Cox Communications, Comcast, Echostar, Linksys (a division of Cisco), Motorola, Panasonic, RadioShack, Toshiba and Verizon.