Sand 9, a start-up up company developing timing oscillator and frequency control technology for the wireless device market has closed a $12 million Series B round of financing led by new investor Commonwealth Capital Ventures.  Previous investors Flybridge Capital Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures also participated in the round.  The funding will be used to accelerate sales and marketing and expand product manufacturing to volume shipment levels. 

In January 2008, Sand 9 received $8 million in its first VC investment round.  The A round investment was led by Flybridge Capital Partners.

As part of the funding, Stephen McCormack, a general partner with Commonwealth Capital Ventures, will join David Aronoff, a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, and Hemant Taneja, a general partner at General Catalyst Partners, on the company's Board of Directors.

The company is introducing a disruptive MEMS technology, the Temperature Compensated MEMS Oscillator (TCMOTM), to replace quartz crystal frequency sources in high performance applications such as 3G cellular, GPS and other communications. The company's proprietary technology claims to offer significant improvement over existing solutions and aims to dramatically impact the wireless components market.

The company has plenty of of competition including Silicon Clocks, Multigig, and Discera.  Sand 9's competiting technology utilizes nanomechanical resonators to increase device performance.  The resonators create a mechanical signal that can then be converted into an electronic signal in the gigahertz range.

Founded in 2007, Sand 9 is based in Cambridge, Mass. with a design center in Chandler, AZ. 

Contact:
Vince Graziani, CEO, www.sand9.com