Sydney-based Morse Micro, a fabless developer of Wi-Fi chips, raised a $140M Series B led by Japanese SoC developer MegaChips
Richard Chirgwin / iTnews :
Context & Ripple Effects
Morse Micro's raise is the payoff of a slow build: the Sydney fabless startup spent years on ultra low-power, long-range Wi-Fi HaLow silicon for IoT before extending its Series A by $13M to $30M in late 2020. The new $140M Series B, led by Japanese SoC developer MegaChips, is nearly five times everything it had raised before.
The lead investor matters as much as the amount: MegaChips builds system-on-chip products, so this reads as a strategic pairing rather than purely financial backing — a signal that established SoC players see HaLow-class Wi-Fi as part of their IoT roadmap.
First-order effects
- Morse Micro now has the balance sheet to take its Wi-Fi HaLow chips from development toward volume production, with MegaChips holding both an equity stake and a potential integration path for its own SoC line.
Second-order effects
- HaLow now has the funding to compete head-on with licensed-spectrum cellular alternatives for IoT links — including Blues Wireless' $49 cellular connectivity chip backed by Sequoia — turning device-maker connectivity choices into a standards-and-price contest.
Third-order effects
- If well-capitalized fabless specialists keep emerging for each IoT radio standard, the sector follows the consolidation logic of earlier wireless-chip deals like Skyworks' $2B purchase of PMC-Sierra: today's funded startups become tomorrow's acquisition targets or platform owners.
The trend: Venture and strategic capital is flowing into purpose-built low-power wireless silicon for IoT, positioning unlicensed-spectrum Wi-Fi variants against cellular as the default device connection.