Cambridge Silicon Radio wins big backers

Cambridge Silicon Radio, the first company to put a radio on a chip to the Bluetooth standard, has raised $34m, setting a value on the company of over $300m.

The money will be used to recruit more engineers, ramp up production and fund the next generation of chips. The company has already shipped around 10,000 chips and says laptops using them will be on sale in Japan by Christmas. The company has an impressive list of backers including Alcatel, the Siemens venture fund, ARM Holdings and Intel. Bluetooth is the developing standard for communication between electronic devices at ranges up to 100 m.