Memsic spins off new sensing solutions business
In late 2017 Memsic Inc. sold off its consumer sensor business including its magnetometer and accelerometer products, along with the Memsic brand to HC SemiTek Corp. of China. In early 2018 the remainder of the business renamed as Acienna Inc. finalized an investment of approximately $50 million from the company founders and IDG Capital.
It has not been revealed how much Acienna made by the sell-off of Memsic.
Acienna, under the original Memsic ownership, management team, and board of directors and led by Memsic founder Yang Zhao, is now focused on developing higher value products for higher growth markets, including inertial navigation systems, medical flow sensors, and current sensors developed at the original Memsic company.
Zhao said in a statement that HC SemiTek intends to have the Memsic components business operate independently and is investing over a $100 million to help it become an international manufacturer of multiple MEMS sensors used in consumer, automotive and industrial products.
Acienna is developing sensing solutions for artificial Intelligence applications such as autonomous vehicles, high performance computers and smart buildings. “We predict that within five years, IMU-based navigation technology for autonomous vehicles will be a billion-dollar market,” said Zhao, in the statement.
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