Anafocus (Seville, Spain), which specializes in developing intelligent CMOS image sensors, has successfully achieved new funding totaling 2.5 million euros. The new investment will be applied to the acquisition and setup of cleanroom facilities for sensor mass-production, the development of a family of off-the-shelf intelligent CMOS image sensors, and the expansion of the team and installations in Anafocus' offices in Spain and Japan.
The funding has been accomplished by Fondo Jeremie Andalucia, a private equity and mezzanine fund managed by the Agency for Innovation and Development of Andalucia, Spain. Bullnet Capital, the Spanish venture capital firm that led the Series A round, remains an investor in the company.
"Anafocus competes in a market sector with a strong growth potential. Besides that Anafocus has a clear and differentiated value proposition compared to the standard offer of image sensors," says Stefan Mathesius, Director of Fondo Jeremie Andalucia. "Despite its limited initial financial resources, Anafocus' founding team members succeeded in developing a world-class engineering team and created and consolidated an impressive portfolio of customers, consisting of top-tier camera and system vendors worldwide.
"The achievements in Japan are especially commendable," he notes, "including a quality-focused and highly-demanding market where Anafocus has an important number of consolidated customer accounts, many of them loyal customers, engaging in business with the firm on multiple occasions in a short period of time. The history encouraged us to believe that Anafocus has the potential to become a market leader and thus Fondo Jeremie Andalucia has taken the decision to become a strategic investor, in order to support the current and future development of the company."
"From its foundation, Anafocus has always pursued technological excellence in all of its developments," says Rafael Romay, General Manager of says Rafael Romay, General Manager of Anafocus. "Such a focus has allowed us to create and consolidate a considerable portfolio of IP around key aspects of CMOS image sensor technology, including pixel-level image storage and processing, HDR sensing, ultra-low noise, ultra-high speed sensor readout, distributed processing architectures for real-time optical correction and novel architectures for sensor auto-reconfiguration and self-programming.
"Our unique technology in addition to the methodology we use for the development of complex systems on-chip (SoC) image sensor, and the knowledge and professionalism of our team are the key factors that persuade our past and current customers," he adds.
For more information about Anafocus, visit the company website.
Posted by Vision Systems Design
