Impinj Raises $19 Million in Private Funding Round; Prepares for Increased Demand for Item-Level RFID Technology


SEATTLE, WA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 7, 2007 --Leading semiconductor and RFID technology provider Impinj, Inc. today announced that the company has raised $19 million in a private funding round. AllianceBernstein L.P., one of the world's largest asset management firms, led the oversubscribed round. All previous investors also participated including venture firms ARCH Venture Partners, GF Private Equity Group, Madrona Venture Group, Mobius Venture Capital, Polaris Venture Partners and strategic investors Unilever Technology Ventures, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, VentureTech Alliance and the Viterbi Group.

The new financing brings Impinj's total venture and strategic investment to $98 million and will be used to escalate product development and delivery of the GrandPrix™ UHF item-level RFID solution comprising Speedway™ readers, tags powered by Monza™ chips, and application-specific near-field reader antennas.

"The demand from retail and product distribution companies for our GrandPrix RFID solution is increasing rapidly as the measurable benefits from tagging individual, high-value products such as pharmaceuticals and apparel become apparent," said William Colleran, president and CEO of Impinj. "This investment by AllianceBernstein and our previous financial supporters validates our vision for the RFID industry and allows Impinj to accelerate item-level RFID product development to address burgeoning demand."

Impinj recently announced collaboration with Owens-Illinois and Purdue Pharma, leaders in pharmaceutical manufacturing, to improve the performance and security of drug bottle fill-lines and downstream supply chain operations by using the GrandPrix solution's item-level tracking features. Impinj expects similar success from numerous item-level tagging projects underway with manufacturers and distributors in the pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods, apparel and retail industries worldwide.

"We are excited by Impinj's leadership position in the RFID industry and by the company's recent prominent wins in pharmaceutical applications," said Jamie Kiggen, Senior Vice President of AllianceBernstein. "We believe that the pharmaceutical field represents just the first of many compelling market opportunities for Impinj's item-level RFID products."

About Impinj, Inc.

Impinj, Inc. is a semiconductor and RFID company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon® technology enables its two synergistic business lines: high-performance RFID products and semiconductor intellectual property (IP). A leading contributor to the RFID standards for high-volume supply-chain applications worldwide, Impinj leverages its technical expertise and industry partnerships to deliver the GrandPrix™ solution, comprising tags, readers, software and systems integration to offer RFID that just works™. Impinj's innovative IP products, core to the company's RFID tags, are licensed to leading semiconductor companies worldwide, allowing them to seamlessly integrate crucial nonvolatile memory (NVM) alongside analog and digital functionality on a single chip. Impinj's IP products include the popular AEON® family of embeddable cores, which provides rewriteable NVM technology in logic CMOS manufacturing. For more information, visit www.impinj.com.

Impinj, Speedway, Self-Adaptive Silicon, GrandPrix, Monza, "RFID that just works," and AEON are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Impinj, Inc.

Contact Information: Editorial Contacts: Jim Donaldson Impinj, Inc. 206-834-1091 Email Contact Lynda Kaye Mango Communications for Impinj 650-799-2888 Email Contact