Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Cambridge based Prelude Trust plc, the investment trust managed by Esprit Capital Management Ltd that specialises in high growth technology-based businesses, has invested a further €900,000 (£620,000) in Xanadu Wireless BV.

Xanadu is a fabless semiconductor company, based in the Netherlands, providing products for the wireless sensor market based on the IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee standards.

The investment completes a financing round from May 2006 and has been provided by Prelude, GIMV and Motorola Ventures. It coincides with Xanadu's acquisition of Ubiwave NV, a Belgian wireless systems company, following which the Trust has a 21.2 per cent shareholding in the combined company.

Alan Duncan a partner with Esprit Capital Partners and a director of Xanadu said: "Xanadu has developed a family of innovative chips for wireless sensor applications that offer a combination of low cost with minimal power dissipation enabling sensors to operate for longer or to be powered by smaller batteries."