MUMBAI, India, April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- The First IPO on NYSE of a Company Funded With Indian Venture Capital

Reliance Venture Asset Management the corporate venture arm of the Reliance Group announces a profitable exit from the 4G chipmaker Sequans Communications (NYSE: SQNS). This is the first initial public offering (IPO) on New York Stock Exchange of a company funded with Indian VC. The company is a leading fabless designer, developer and supplier of 4G semiconductor solutions for wireless broadband applications, and is based out of France.

Sequans listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, April 18 and celebrated the recent completion of its IPO and its first day of trading. Reliance Venture invested in Sequans in 2007 along with Tier 1 investors like Alcatel Lucent, Motorola, Societe Generale Asset Management, SwissCom, CDC Enterprises, Add Partners, Cap-Decisif, Kennet Venture Partners, Vision Capital and I-Source Gestion.

"Over the years Sequans has established itself as a clear leader in supplying 4G LTE and WiMAX chips and forging excellent customer relations with leading OEMs and MNOs globally." said Harshal Shah, CEO, Reliance Venture. "It has been a great experience working along with Sequans and we are proud to be associated with them for all these years in leading the 4G revolution globally."

Sequans is Reliance Venture's first portfolio company to go for an IPO on New York Stock Exchange and the company also expects to see several more investee companies taking a similar route in the near future.

"This has been a yet another multi-bagger investment for Reliance Venture" said Mr. Shah. "We are open to discussing financial information after observing a limited quiet period for 25 days after the IPO."

Reliance Venture recently exited Dhama Innovations through a secondary sale and is also in talks for several of its portfolio companies as well. Its recent investments include AllGreen Energy, Gradatim IT Ventures, Tessolve Services, Reverse Logistics Co and Suvidhaa Infoserve in India. In the US, it has made investments in companies like Stoke, E-Band Communications, Pelago Inc. and Scalable Display Technologies. Reliance Venture is one of the founding investor in Yatra.com, one of India's most successful travel portals.

Sequans Communications is headquartered in Paris, France. Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange is the first by a French technology company in more than ten years. They currently have more than 45 end customers worldwide, consisting primarily of OEMs and ODMs for smartphones, USB dongles, embedded devices, CPE and basestations. The company continues to work with customers like China Mobile, Acer Inc (2353.TW), Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O), HTC, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] and others.

"We are very proud to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and join ranks with other public companies on the Big Board," said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. "I am also very proud of the global Sequans' team and investors whose hard work has propelled us to this major milestone". Karam said "Sequans' objective is to be the dominant supplier of chips for Fixed and Mobile WIMAX. Our relationship with Reliance Venture is of strategic importance to us as Reliance brings us the operator perspective on the deployment of WIMAX in Asia."

About Reliance Venture Asset Management

Reliance Venture Asset Management Pvt. Ltd. is the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group. Since its inception in early 2006, the company has advised and/ or invested in deals to the tune of over $4 billion. Stage, geographic and sector agnostic in its investment philosophy, Reliance Venture Asset Management has a global portfolio to its credit and has invested in promising companies such as India's largest online travel portal, Yatra.com, Gradatim IT Ventures, Suvidhaa Infoserve, Reverse Logistics Co, AllGreen Energy, Stoke Inc, Pelago Inc, Sequans Communications, Tessolve Services, E-Band Communications, Seedfund and an MIT-startup, Scalable Display Technologies. Some of the transactions they had advised the Reliance ADA Group on include the $300 million all-cash acquisition of San Francisco-based, Yipes Inc. by Reliance Communications, $82 million acquisition of UK-based, Vanco plc, and eWaveWorld, a $500 million initiative to bring 3G and 4G to 50 countries around the world by 2012. Headed by Mr. Harshal J. Shah, who is also the President of the American Alumni Association of India, and an MBA alumnus of Wharton School of Business, a Truman Gray Scholar with dual degrees from MIT, and an Andover Scholar from Phillips Academy in Andover, USA, the company comprises professionals who bring over 50 years of cumulative experience and a solid academic base (MBAs - Ivy League, Technologists from premier Indian & International Universities & Chartered Accountants). The company was recently ranked 30th in the Red Herring Top 100 Global Venture Capital Firms in 2009 and was the only India based corporate VC company to feature in the ranking.

About Sequans

Sequans Communications is a 4G chipmaker, supplying LTE and WiMAX chips to equipment manufacturers and mobile operators worldwide. Approximately 90% of the 4G chips on the Android OS based phone is supplied by Sequans.Founded in 2004 to address the WiMAX market, the company expanded in early 2009 to address the LTE market. The company has offices throughout the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and China.

Sharad Goel, +91-22-30479217, Sharad.Goel@relianceada.com

SOURCE Reliance Venture Asset Management