Micro Power Receives $5 Million Funding

Micro Power Electronics, Inc. of Hillsboro, Oregon, received $5 million in October to go with $9 million received in May, bringing total venture investment to $14 million in less than six months. Palisades Ventures, Los Angeles, California, was lead investor, and was joined by Sierra Ventures, Menlo Park, which was the lead investor in May.

Micro Power’s battery systems power close to 70% of all portable automatic external defibrillators in the market today. Micro Power is the only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered supplier of custom battery systems for portable medical equipment. The company also serves the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) data management markets, as well as certain portable sectors within the communication equipment market.

“There has been a surge of venture investment in battery technology over the past six months, reflecting the urgent need for battery systems technology to catch up with the number of portable systems coming into the market,” said Paul D’Addario, Palisades’ senior managing director. “We invested in this sector because we expect exceptional returns over the next few years.”

According to growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the combined markets for portable medical devices, AIDC systems, wireless point-of-sale terminals and rugged handheld computing represent a $1 billion opportunity for custom battery solutions by 2008.