Israeli chip design startup Sckipio raises funding from Intel Capital

Israeli chip design startup Sckipio — which is trying to deliver fast Internet bandwidth to the masses — has raised a new round of funding from Intel Capital, the investment arm of the world’s biggest chip maker.

The investment shows that it’s still possible to raise money for the rarest thing in tech these days: chip startups. The $335 billion chip business is dominated by companies like Intel, but startups can find some traction still.

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Terms of the deal weren’t announced. Founded in 2012, Sckipio is focused on designing chips based on the G.fast modem standard. It hopes to deliver fiber-optic speeds for broadband access over existing wires such as copper phone lines.

Sckipio has a 30-person engineering team based in Ramat Gan, Israel.

“Sckipio and Intel have been working closely together since the beginning of the G.fast market and jointly announced the first G.fast residential gateway reference design in the fall of 2014,” said Dan Artusi, Intel vice president and general manager of its Connected Home Division, in a statement. “This strategic investment is another milestone for the Intel Connected Home Division and Sckipio to deliver fiber-like speeds to the people on existing copper infrastructure.”

Sckipio demonstrated its technology in the past year. It has so far been able to deliver 1 gigabit per second Internet access across 300 meters.

“Sckipio continued to deliver many industry firsts,” said David Baum, cofounder and CEO of Sckipio Technologies, in a statement. “With the investment from Intel Capital, Sckipio will increase technology investments to accelerate our innovations in the broadband access market.”

Sckipio has received three rounds of funding. Previously, Sckipio raised $27 million from Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures, and Pitango Venture Capital.