Secretive flash memory company, Anobit, raises $17M
Updated
A secretive Israeli chip company called Anobit Technologies has developed a technology that improves flash memory chips for storage in devices such as cellphones, and has raised $17 million in venture capital.
It is founded by Udi Weinstein Ofir Shalvi, two highly respected engineers who also teach at Tel Aviv University. Earlier, they built a cable access chip company called Libit Signal Processing, which was sold to TI in 1999. (Update: A third co-founder is Ariel Maislos, who is here in Silicon Valley now working on a separate stealth company, and so not working full time on Anobit. Maislos is best known for co-founding Passave, which was sold PMC-Sierra last year for $300 million. He met Ofir in the Israeli army reserves; Ofir and Udi were seed investors in Passave.)
The market is huge for sort of thing, because device manufacturers are continually looking for for cheaper, better storage. A source told VentureBeat about the news yesterday, and the investment was confirmed by Battery Ventures’ Scott Tobin today. Battery beat out numerous investors in the competitive deal, including Opus Capital, Greylock and others. Pitango, an Israeli firm, participated in the deal. Neither Opus nor Greylock responded immediately to a request for comment made late yesterday.
[Update II: Our original intelligence appears faulty on Opus. Opus was a backer of Maislos at an earlier company, and while supportive of his project at Anobit, apparently did not bid on the Anobit.]
A press release should come within 36 hours.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
