As part of the collaboration, the two companies will develop two 3G handset reference designs—one each for UMTS and CDMA2000 networks—that combine Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM™) chipsets with Inside’s MicroRead® multi-standard NFC chip. Additionally, Qualcomm Ventures has joined Inside’s other venture capital and strategic investors making an equity investment of Euro 4 million, extending Inside’s series C Preferred funding round and bringing the total for this round to Euro 31.7 million. “Incorporating Inside Contactless’s NFC technology into 3G reference designs based on MSM chipsets will provide additional value to OEMs and ODMs, enabling them to more quickly bring NFC handsets to market,” said Len Lauer, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Qualcomm. “NFC’s convenience and ease of use for consumers has been shown in numerous technology field trials. We are working to help NFC gain traction among handset manufacturers by investing in, and collaborating with, leading technology providers such as Inside Contactless.” “This alliance is significant not only for our MicroRead NFC solution, but for NFC technology and the mobile payments market in general. We believe the availability of these reference designs will provide a significant boost to the deployment of NFC-enabled 3G handsets worldwide,” said Rémy de Tonnac, chief executive officer of Inside Contactless. “We look forward to creating these reference designs with Qualcomm and contributing our expertise and ideas to further the development of the emerging NFC ecosystem.” According to de Tonnac, the availability of these reference designs will also likely encourage some handset makers to enter the market more quickly than they would if they had to develop this kind of solution themselves from scratch. www.insidecontactless.com