University of Southampton spinout to use funding to scale IP technology business that significantly reduces latency and increases spectral efficiency

Southampton, 21 September 2020: AccelerComm – The Southampton University spinout supercharging 5G, satellite and other wireless communications with IP which increases spectrum efficiency and reduces latency – has raised £5.8m in Series A funding in a round led by IQ Capital alongside  existing investors Bloc Ventures and the IP Group. The funding will be used to expand the current team, drive US and global expansion, and develop the technology further as demand for the company’s cutting-edge digital signal processing IP grows among mobile operators, telecoms equipment vendors, satellite operators and connected device manufacturers.

Low latency and high spectrum efficiency are crucial in protecting cellular and other radio networks from insufficient capacity, low data rates, sparse coverage and poor quality-of-service. Despite  the roll-out of early 5G networks these factors remain an issue that risk stifling new revenue opportunities for operators from services such as gaming or VR, industrial IoT, autonomous vehicles or drone control.

AccelerComm’s cutting-edge channel coding IP is used to correct transmission errors in mobile, small cell and satellite communications caused by noise, interference and poor signal strength. This technology is optimised for the specific needs of cellular and satellite communications to provide market leading performance and efficiency. The product suite includes a complete channel coding IP solution that delivers reduced latency and power consumption for the most critical component of a 5G system, whilst meeting all the throughput and error correction targets. The AccelerComm IP packages can be quickly integrated and flexibly delivered for use in custom silicon (ASIC), programmable hardware (FPGA) or as software solutions, covering all use cases within the current standards.

Founded by Professor Rob Maunder at the University of Southampton in 2016, AccelerComm has established itself as a leader in the field of channel coding, also known as forward error correction, and is already working with Intel, Xilinx and National Instruments. Driven by a leadership team comprising executives and senior talent from ARM, Qualcomm and Ericsson, the company was recently named in the EE Times Silicon 100: Emerging Startups to Watch and continues to push the state-of-the-art in channel coding technology.

Tom Cronk, CEO of AccelerComm said:

“From gaming and VR to automated robotic manufacturing lines and telemedicine, the use cases on the road to 5G appear almost limitless. But a critical roadblock remains – latency. For more than 15 years a research team led by Prof. Maunder, first at the University of Southampton and now at AccelerComm, has been working to solve the challenge to deliver on the 5G promise of a low latency, high throughput experience. We are delighted to have closed our Series A funding round, which will help us further develop and deploy our already market leading technology to help improve the efficiency of networks for many years to come.”

Max Bautin, Managing Partner at IQ Capital commented:

“We are very excited that we have been able to partner with AccelerComm in this round of funding. Squeezing ever more data into limited radio spectrum at faster and faster speeds is a huge challenge facing the telecoms industry. Improving the efficiency and reliability of data transfer has become critical to many industries – not just in cellular networks and IoT but also satellites, drones, fixed wireless internet and anything else that uses radio waves. AccelerComm’s track record of selling to globally very sophisticated blue-chip customers and deep IP are very impressive. The amazing founding team combining cutting edge academic and industry knowledge with ex ARM DNA gives AccelerComm incredible growth potential.”

David Leftley, CTO and co-founder of Bloc Ventures and Lee Thornton, Investment Director at IP Group said:

“Bloc and IP Group are delighted to be partnering with Max and the IQ Capital team on taking AccelerComm to the next level of scale. We believe we have the makings of something very special in AccelerComm, something we have not seen in the UK since the early days of ARM”.

AccelerComm were advised through the funding process by Acuity Advisors, UK.

–ENDS—

Notes to Editors

About AccelerComm

AccelerComm is the company supercharging 5G with Optimisation and Latency Reduction IP. It provides LDPC, polar and turbo FEC solutions which enable optimal performance of communication systems and solves the challenges that would otherwise limit the speed of 5G, namely the error correction decoding that is required to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength. For more information please visit: www.accelercomm.com

About IQ Capital

IQ Capital is a venture capital firm, based in Cambridge and London. With £300m assets under management, it invests in ‘deep-tech’ across sectors including machine learning, AI, robotics, and advanced engineering and materials, and data-focused propositions based on disruptive algorithms. All of the firm’s portfolio companies are capable of dominating their respective markets on a global scale. Initial investments range from £300k to £5m, with capacity for follow-on investment up to £30m.

The IQ Capital team has achieved over 20 exits to date, to companies including Oracle, Google, Apple, Huawei, and Facebook, and several IPOs. IQ Capital has led 28 investments over the last three years. The firm is currently investing at seed and Series A stage from its third venture fund.

For more information, please visit: www.iqcapital.vc

About Bloc Ventures

Bloc Ventures is a permanent venture capital company providing expert-led funding of European deep technology. The Bloc team has a tight complementary mix of technology, commercialisation and finance expertise borne out of extensive careers in the technology industry, including many years in corporate venture capital and M&A at Vodafone and ARM. They apply a hands-on collaborative approach with portfolio companies to scale them rapidly post- investment. Bloc serves as the catalyst for its portfolio companies, moving them from early-stage to growth businesses and driving substantial value-creation.

For more information, please visit:  www.blocventures.com

About IP Group

IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiaries IP Capital and Parkwalk Advisors), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in early-stage to mature businesses across life sciences and technology. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

For more information, please visit: www.ipgroupplc.com