VentureLink Brighter Future Fund Inc. Invests in Sidense Corp.

TORONTO, May 12 /CNW/ - VentureLink Brighter Future Fund Inc. ("VentureLink") is pleased to announce the completion of a CDN$2.5 million investment in Ottawa-based Sidense Corp. ("Sidense", the "Company") as part of a total financing round of $5 million.

Established in 2004, Sidense is a developer of Memory Semiconductor Intellectual Property ("MIPS") for the non-volatile memory ("NVM") semiconductor market. Sidense's key differentiator for customers include the need to incorporate NVM that can be manufactured on a standard-logic CMOS process, has very small area footprints, very fast read access times, is highly secure, and has very low operating power consumption. Sidense is the only supplier of NVM IP that can meet all of these demanding requirements.

Sidense's solutions are targeted at applications that require one-time-programmable ("OTP") or emulated multi-time-programmable ("eMTP") memories. The solutions provide reliable, low-cost and scalable alternatives for discrete flash, Mask ROM, eFuse and embedded flash components in various applications including mobile phones, set-top boxes, LCD displays, handheld devices, multi-function machines, radio-frequency identification ("RFID") and satellite radios. Sidense has developed two solutions, SLP and SiPROM, and both are currently shipping to customers. in production, and manufactured at TSMC, UMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Fujitsu and SMIC in standard CMOS processes.

"Sidense has leading technology, an attractive and growing customer pipeline and strong foundry relationships. We look forward to the opportunity to work with Xerxes, Wlodek and the Sidense team," states Jim Whitaker, Managing Partner, VL Advisors Inc.

"We appreciate VentureLink's recognition of the importance of OTP technology as an enabler of leading-edge consumer, communication and industrial products and of Sidense as a leader in the embedded OTP memory marketplace," adds Xerxes Wania, CEO of Sidense. "VentureLink's investment will help Sidense to continue to develop new NVM products and make those products available to our customers."

About Sidense

Sidense Corp., founded in 2004, is a leading developer of silicon-proven embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP). Sidense's patented one-time programmable (OTP) memory enables a wide range of electronic products which are based upon complex System on Chip (SOC) semiconductors. End-market products include home entertainment consumer products, cellular telephones, RFID, medical, automotive and a host of other uses.

Semiconductor and systems companies integrate Sidense IP cores into their SOC designs, saving time and money and allowing them to focus on the core competencies that differentiate their products. Sidense provides IP which is difficult and uneconomical for the device makers to try to create on their own.

The company has partnerships with the top-tier semiconductor foundries and selected IDMs. More information is available on our website www.sidense.com.

About VentureLink

With over $240 million under management, VentureLink Funds is a diverse group of retail venture capital funds. VentureLink Funds give investors access to dynamic industries like alternative energy as well as to well-diversified portfolios of established companies operating in traditional industries such as financial, manufacturing and service industries.

For further information: Jim Whitaker, Managing Partner, VentureLink LP, [phone], [phone]