SiGe Semiconductor has raised $20 million US in an expansion round of financing to fund its wireless product marketing, adding Samsung Ventures to its syndicate of investors as part of the deal.

The Ottawa-based company, which supplies radio-frequency (RF) front-end solutions for consumer-driven wireless systems, said the proceeds of the financing round would fund expansion of its product lines supporting the Wi-Fi, WiMAX and GPS markets.

Samsung Ventures, which is the US-based venture capital investment arm for the Samsung Electronics group, will be joining returning investors 3i Venture Capital, Prism VentureWorks, TD Capital Ventures, VenGrowth Private Equity Partners, RWI Ventures and GrowthWorks.

"Our objective with this funding is to expand our customer base to drive an increase in our market share across key segments," said SiGe chief executive Sohail Khan in a statement. "Expanding our footprint in the market will drive profitable growth and will fuel the development of industry-leading products for emerging wireless applications."

SiGe also announced the addition of Samsung Ventures's managing director Bill Byun and 3i Venture Capital partner Jim McLean as new board members along with the completion of the funding round. Mr. McLean is replacing former 3i representative Sean Brownlee.

SiGe noted that its revenues increased to $49.4 million in 2006 from $31.8 million in 2005, and that it has shipped more than 160 million integrated circuits to customers and partners such as Broadcom, Nintendo and Samsung.

"We evaluated several semiconductor companies serving the wireless consumer markets and were impressed with SiGe's outstanding revenue growth and proven track record in delivering technically innovative products," said Mr. Byun. "Samsung Ventures also recognizes the synergies across our target markets and we feel this will be a mutually beneficial investment."