Australian startup Morse Micro, which is developing ultra low-power, long-range Wi-Fi HaLow chips for IoT environments, extends its Series A by $13M to $30M
Morse Micro, the Australian IoT WiFi start-up, has secured $13 million (AU $18) in additional funding.
Context & Ripple Effects
Morse Micro's $13M Series A extension lands in the middle of a funding wave for low-power IoT silicon: Ray Ozzie's Blues Wireless raised a $22M Series A for a $49 cellular connectivity chip weeks later, and ambient-RF chipmaker Wiliot had already climbed from a $30M Series B backed by AWS and Samsung toward a $200M Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2.
The extension reads as bridge capital for a fabless Wi-Fi HaLow chip taking its first products to market — and the related coverage shows it worked: two years on, Morse Micro raised a $140M Series B led by MegaChips, a Japanese SoC developer, validating the ultra-low-power, long-range Wi-Fi bet.
First-order effects
- Morse Micro gets the runway to move Wi-Fi HaLow silicon from development toward volume production as a fabless vendor, with the added capital covering foundry and design costs.
- IoT device makers evaluating connectivity now have a funded long-range, low-power Wi-Fi option to weigh alongside cellular and proprietary radios.
Second-order effects
- Adjacent approaches are forced to differentiate on their own axes: Blues Wireless sells simplicity via a fixed-price $49 cellular chip, while Wiliot chases battery-free operation — power, range, and per-unit cost become the explicit battlegrounds.
- Strategic investors take note of the category's capital intensity; MegaChips' later lead of Morse Micro's Series B shows SoC incumbents buying into rather than competing with the new entrants.
Third-order effects
- If the funding pattern holds, ultra-low-power IoT connectivity consolidates around a handful of heavily capitalized fabless players, with corporate and sovereign-backed money (MegaChips, SoftBank) deciding which radio standards — Wi-Fi HaLow, cellular, ambient RF — reach scale.
The trend: Venture and strategic capital is consolidating behind ultra-low-power IoT silicon, where early low-eight-figure bets on new radio standards are being followed by nine-figure rounds led by semiconductor strategics.