Discera, a pioneer in MEMS based technology for the clock and timing markets, completed its Series D financing, having raised $11 million. Investors in this round include previous investors Scale Venture Partners, Horizon Ventures, and Ardesta. In addition, they were joined by new investor Lurie Investments. With the close, William White, EVP of Lurie Investments joins Discera's Board of Directors.

Lurie Investments is the private investing arm of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation, specializing in venture capital and private equity investing. Over the past decade, the firm has made a number of investments in the MEMS and nanotechnology space, as well as substantial investments in life sciences, including devices, diagnostics and therapeutics. Lurie Investment Fund, LLC is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Founded in 2001 as an extension of pioneering MEMS development work at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Discera has amassed 27 MEMS technology patents. The firm's products are used in a wide variety of electronic systems, and the company's MEMS oscillators were the first such devices to be catalog listed by a major distributor.

Bruce Diamond

A little over a year ago, Discera appointed Bruce Diamond as president and CEO.  He came to Discera from WJ Communications, a supplier of RF solutions for wireless infrastructure, where he served as CEO. Diamond helped turn the company and managed it through its recent acquisition by TriQuint Semiconductor Earlier, he served as chief operating officer and EVP at Zilog, a San Jose, California-based publicly traded provider of integrated 8-bit microcontrollers and universal remote control solutions. Additionally, Diamond held management positions at Sipex, ANADIGICS, and National Semiconductor.

Kent Chon

Recently, a new sales Veep was recruited.  Kent Chon came on board with 15 years of experience in various sales roles.  As VP of worldwide sales, Kent will be responsible for managing the worldwide sales team, with an emphasis on business development.  Chon was previously VP of sales, Asia for Intersil where he had several roles including managing director, Korea and director of Marketing. Prior to these roles he held similar positions in Elantec, which was acquired by Intersil in 2002.  He will be based in Honk Kong and report to CEO Diamond.

Contact:
Bruce Diamond, president and CEO, Discera, www.discera.com