Crocus Technology has secured $21 million in a new financing round. All of Crocus' historical French and international investors participated in the round, including NanoDimension, Innovation Capital, IdInvest Partners, and Rusnano. Founded in 2004, Crocus has raised $194 million to date.
Crocus says that since it began producing MLU-based magnetic sensors in mid-2014, they have over 250 customers. The new capital will help Crocus to deploy its sensor product line in the key target markets: industrial, consumer electronics, automotive and solutions for IoT. Crocus will also strengthen its commercial resources (including finalizing a distribution network in Asia and reinforcing the support team) and develop develop new designs to enrich the product portfolio with integrated sensor and smart sensor applications. Crocus aims to reach breakeven in Q1 2016.
Crocus Technology's MLU is a CMOS based rugged magnetic technology, that can be used to create both sensors and embedded micro-controllers. Crocus has been co-developing the MLU technology together with IBM since 2011, and in early 2014 the company licensed its technology to ARM.
In late 2013, Crocus Nanoelectronics (Crocus and Rusnano's $300 million JV) announced that they launched the first production line at their MLU (TAS-MRAM based) production line in Technopolis, Moscow. Back in July 2013, Crocus completed their Series D round of funding, raising 34 million Euro (about $45 million). Back in 2012 we interviewed the company's chief marketing officer.