Qualinx, the Dutch wireless tracking specialist, has completed a $20 million Series A.

$10.2 million  has been added to the $8.8 million  investment announced earlier this year.

The new round comes from existing investors, FORWARD.one, InnovationQuarter Capital and Waterman Ventures, and includes an Innovation Credit facility from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO.

Qualinx now has sufficient financing to complete the development of its second-generation GNSS IoT radio system-on-chip (SoC) and to commence mass production in 2024.

Founded as a spin-off from Delft University of Technology and supported by earlier investments from Delft Enterprises, the company developed a radio chip which claims to be able to receive GNSS signals 10x faster than other ICs.

The chip is able to detect signals from all major satellite systems including GPS, to accurately determine location and time.
“This next step in our Series A financing round shows the confidence of our existing investors in DRF technology and our successful application for RVO’s Innovation Credit facility reaffirms that our technology and market strategy are on track”, said Tom Trill, CEO at Qualinx.”

Qualinx’s Digital Radio Frequency (DRF) technology transfers most of a wireless chip’s analog functions into the digital domain. This brings CMOS scaling benefits to GPS-like radios and to other industry-standard, short and long-range radios. In all these devices, DFR functions can be configured in software to precisely tailor the radio’s performance for each application, while delivering up to 10X power reduction in smaller, lower-cost packages than those of traditional radios.

The company’s first-generation product, the QLX300+ is believed to be the world’s smallest and most power-efficient Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) sensor.

The second-generation QLX400 will combine the GNSS sensor with an IoT radio on one chip. The GNSS sensors receive geo-positioning information, detecting signals from all major satellite systems including GPS and Galileo, to accurately determine location and time.

The addition of a radio creates a low-power system-on-chip that will extend the operating life of battery-powered products from months to years.