Joining Highly Acclaimed Program, Edgewater Gains Access to Board Advisor, Industry Mentors and Essential Cost-Saving Ecosystem of In-Kind Silicon Partners
November 12, 2024 – Ottawa, Canada and Silicon Valley, USA – Edgewater Wireless Systems Inc. (TSXV: YFI) (OTC: KPIFF), an industry leader in Wi-Fi Spectrum Slicing technology for residential and enterprise markets, is pleased to announce today that that world-renowned Silicon Catalyst has selected Edgewater to join their Semiconductor Incubator + Accelerator program.
Joining Silicon Catalyst represents a pivotal moment for Edgewater Wireless. Engaging with over 1,200 semiconductor startups worldwide, Silicon Catalyst has admitted only 100 companies to their 24-month customized incubation and acceleration program since 2015. Edgewater is honoured to be selected as one of the six incoming companies.
“We are thrilled to have been selected to join the Silicon Catalyst program. Their established network of in-kind partnerships and deep industry expertise will dramatically reduce the cost of bringing our next-generation chips to market,” said Andrew Skafel, President and CEO of Edgewater Wireless. “With the backing of Silicon Catalyst, we can accelerate our transition from prototype to production while leveraging their deep semiconductor industry expertise.”
Guided closely by a Silicon Catalyst partner, and accessing a network of over 350 industry advisors, the accelerator’s ecosystem provides everything early-stage semiconductor companies need to design, fabricate, and market semiconductor solutions. Most critically, Silicon Catalyst-backed companies can tap in excess of US$3M worth of in-kind goods and services essential for bringing Edgewater’s next-generation semiconductors to market. Silicon Catalyst, its Strategic Partners and Investors, are renowned for helping emerging semiconductor companies transform ideas into valuable, high-impact products.
Edgewater is eager to leverage this opportunity to accelerate and de-risk the company’s move to production of next-generation Wi-Fi Spectrum Slicing powered chips.
Concurrent with Edgewater’s admission to the program, Silicon Catalyst will be granted a Board Advisor position and receive 18,812,639 warrants. Each warrant (a “Warrant”) entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share of the Company (a “Warrant Share”) at a price of $0.05 per Warrant Share until the date, which is 5-years following the issuance of the Warrants. The consideration is subject to the receipt of all required corporate and regulatory approvals, including the TSXV.
“By enabling such a dramatic shift in Wi-Fi capabilities, Edgewater and its highly-differentiated Spectrum Slicing technology are poised to disrupt the global wireless industry,” said Nick Kepler, Chief Operating Officer of Silicon Catalyst. “We’re thrilled to welcome Edgewater and bring to bear our established network to grow their market and accelerate their transition to production of transformative and visionary products.”
Edgewater’s highly differentiated Wi-Fi Spectrum Slicing approach is the first technology to enable multiple, in-band concurrent links (or channels) within a given coverage area using standards-compliant Wi-Fi. Using advanced signal processing techniques, Spectrum Slicing is proven to deliver dramatically lower latency (50% or more) and 7 to 18 times performance gains over legacy, single-channel Wi-Fi architectures — for existing and new devices.
With Edgewater’s standards-leading Wi-Fi Spectrum Slicing, Service Providers and vendors are no longer forced to replace all existing devices, such as WiFi4/5/6, on the network to benefit from the evolving Wi-Fi 7 standard. In other words, the 20+ Billion existing Wi-Fi devices, such as TVs, smartphones and gaming consoles, do not need to be replaced to realize the gains associated with Spectrum Slicing plus the newest devices to benefit from the latest WiFi7 standard.
About Silicon Catalyst
“it’s about what’s next®”
Silicon Catalyst is the only incubator + accelerator focused on the Global Semiconductor Industry including Chips, Chiplets, Materials, IP and Silicon fabrication-based Photonics, MEMS, Sensors, Life Science and Quantum. More than 1,200 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted over 100 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator + accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their company’s novel technology solutions. Over the past nine years, the Silicon Catalyst model has been proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors.
The Silicon Catalyst Angels was established in July 2019 as a separate organization to provide access to seed and Series A funding for Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies. SiliconCatalyst.UK, a subsidiary of Silicon Catalyst, was selected by the UK government to manage ChipStart UK, an early-stage semiconductor incubator funded by the UK government.
In February of this year, Silicon Catalyst Ventures (SCV) was launched to fund early-stage startups accepted into the incubator’s two-year program. SCV has already made eleven investments in Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies.
More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.com, www.siliconcatalystangels.com, www.siliconcatalyst.uk, and www.sicatalystvc.com.
About Edgewater Wireless
We make Wi-Fi. Better.
Edgewater Wireless (www.edgewaterwireless.com) is the industry leader in innovative Spectrum Slicing technology for residential and commercial markets. We develop advanced Wi-Fi silicon solutions, Access Points, and IP licensing designed to meet the high-density and high quality-of-service needs of service providers and their customers. With 26 granted patents, Edgewater’s Multi-Channel, Single Radio (MCSR) technology revolutionizes Wi-Fi, delivering next-generation Wi-Fi today.
Edgewater’s physical layer Spectrum Slicing allows a frequency band to be divided, or sliced, to enable more radios to operate in a given area. Think of Spectrum Slicing like moving from a single-lane road to a multi-lane highway — regardless of Wi-Fi technology. The recently completed Proof of Concept (PoC) with a major Tier 1 Service Provider showed 7 to 18 times performance gains in 75% of homes surveyed. Interestingly, homes with the most devices saw the greatest improvements.
For more information, visit www.edgewaterwireless.com.
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Edgewater Wireless Contacts:
Andrew Skafel, President and CEO
Bill Mitoulas, Investor Relations
T: +1.416.479.9547
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words “expect”, “anticipate”, “continue”, “estimate”, “objective”, “ongoing”, “may”, “will”, “project”, “should”, “believe”, “plans”, “intends” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. Although Edgewater Wireless believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information because Edgewater Wireless can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Edgewater cannot guarantee that the Silicon Catalyst program will accelerate the company’s transition to production, that costs of such transition will be reduced or that funding opportunities will be made available. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause Edgewater Wireless’ actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to access to capital markets, market forces, competition from new and existing companies and regulatory conditions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date it is expressed in this news release or otherwise, and to not use future-oriented information or financial outlooks for anything other than their intended purpose. Edgewater Wireless undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
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