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Sensor Platforms, Inc. Announces Launch and $1.33 Million Initial
Round of Financing
Dwight, Hsu, and Traversi team up to address major sensor
market need
SANTA ROSA, CA, August 23, 2004 - Sensor Platforms, Inc., a Santa
Rosa, CA-based designer, developer, and producer of integrated
circuits serving the sensor industry, today announced its formation
and the closing of a $1.33 million initial round of equity financing
that was led by members of the North Bay Angels, a Healdsburg-based
group focused on early-stage investment opportunities.
Sensor Platforms is dedicated to being the world’s leading
enabler of sensor applications, providing low cost, high performance,
“system-on-a-chip” integrated circuits (“ICs”)
that:
- Directly interface with most sensor elements;
- Eliminate the cost, time, and risk associated
with development of the sensor interfaces;
- Dramatically decrease unit costs of sensor
application solutions; and
- Enhance sensor performance
Sensor Platforms’ proprietary Universal Smart Sensor Chip™,
currently in development, will be the only IC that can directly
interface with and drive most types of sensor elements, including
pulse, voltage, current, inductive, capacitive, and resistive
- providing the lowest cost and highest performance available
for a sensor solution.
The company's technology was developed over the past two years
by a development team led by George Hsu, the former Chief Executive
Officer of PNI Corp. Mr. Hsu founded PNI in the late 1980's as
a vehicle to commercialize his invention of the digital magnetic
compass, of which tens of millions are now produced annually.
While at PNI, which also produces a number of other sensor-based
products, Mr. Hsu identified an acute need for a low cost, “off-the-shelf”
IC to accelerate the time-to-market in, and lower the cost of,
developing sensor-based applications. The Sensor Platforms' solution
directly addresses this need.
Mr. Hsu, who will serve as President and Chief Executive Officer
of Sensor Platforms, stated, "To date, the development of
any sensor application has required the costly and time-intensive
development of customized processing circuitry, firmware, and
the algorithms unique to that application, as well as the control
system, calibration software, and the equipment to facilitate
the sensor application's successful mass production. The lack
of a standard sensor application development environment and processing
circuitry has significantly restrained growth in the sensor industry.
Sensor Platforms' products directly address this need."
David Traversi will serve as Chairman of the company, and will
play an active role in the company's management. Mr. Traversi
is Managing Director of 2020 Growth Partners, LLC, a strategic
advisory firm based in Santa Rosa. He was formerly a General Partner
of Montgomery Securities, President of Sirrom Capital Corporation
(a Nashville-based, publicly-traded company that was sold in 1999),
and Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of PRE Solutions, Inc.,
a venture-backed company based in Atlanta that is now the world's
leading electronic processor of prepaid products.
Mr. Traversi noted, "The global market for sensor elements
alone is projected to reach over $50 billion by 2008, and the
electronics necessary to run these elements is at least as large.
Thousands of new sensor applications are deployed each year that
require, for each new application, the development and production
of processing circuitry, calibration technology, and all the software
needed to make it work. We believe our platform can significantly
reduce the development time and cost of these new sensor applications,
by as much as 10 times. These savings and efficiencies will play
a key role in the development of new sensor applications and will
help the overall sensor market achieve the growth that it's certainly
capable of."
Most of Sensor Platforms’ investors are members of the North
Bay Angels. Founded in 1998 by Steve Weiss, Harold Robinson, Dieter
Thurow, and John Mackie, the organization is a group of individual
investors who have banded together to evaluate and potentially
fund and mentor local startups. The Sensor Platforms investment
was coordinated by Herb Dwight, formerly the Chief Executive Officer
and Chairman of Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc., which was acquired
by JDS Uniphase Corporation, and Superconductor Technologies,
Inc. He was also a Founder and the Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of Spectra-Physics. He currently serves on the boards
of a number of private and public companies, including Iolon,
OnWafer, and Applied Materials. Mr. Dwight will serve as a board
member of Sensor Platforms.
Sensor Platforms is located at 1550 Airport Blvd., Suite 220,
Santa Rosa, CA 95403. The website is located at: www.sensorplatforms.com.
EDITORS NOTE: Please refer to the Sensor Platforms’ website
www.sensorplatforms.com
or more information.
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