Nurlink Technology

Nurlink Technology, founded in 2017 by Dr. Xiaohua Kong, is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the development of system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) market. The company is headquartered in Nanjing, China, with additional offices in California, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Nurlink focuses on creating highly integrated circuits for wireless communication, targeting the massive machine-type communications (mMTC) sector. A significant milestone for the company was a Series B funding round on August 27, 2020, where it raised $29 million, led by investors including Infotech Ventures, Shanghai Shengyu Equity Investment Fund Management, and Unity Ventures.

The core of Nurlink's business is the design and provision of chips that enable narrowband connectivity for a wide array of IoT devices. Its client base consists of manufacturers in markets such as smart metering, smart cities, wearables, asset tracking, and industrial sensors. The company operates on a fabless business model, meaning it designs the chips and outsources the manufacturing process, allowing it to focus on research and development to deliver cost-effective and high-performance solutions.

Nurlink's flagship product is the NK6010, a 3GPP Release 14 eNB-IoT SoC. This highly integrated chip combines an RF front-end, RF transceiver, cellular baseband, power management unit, and an application processor into a single unit to minimize size and cost. A key feature of the NK6010 is its support for all NB-IoT frequency bands and major global carriers, which facilitates rapid device certification worldwide. Furthermore, the SoC includes a low-power multi-GNSS subsystem that supports GPS, Beidou, Galileo, and GLONASS, enabling accurate global tracking and location services for devices like asset trackers and wearables. In June 2019, Nurlink successfully completed its first over-the-air call on China Telecom's NB-IoT network using the NK6010, demonstrating the product's market readiness.

Keywords: Nurlink Technology, Xiaohua Kong, fabless semiconductor, system-on-a-chip, SoC, Internet of Things, IoT, NB-IoT, cellular IoT, wireless communications, mMTC, integrated circuits, NK6010, smart metering, asset tracking, wearables, smart city, industrial sensors, multi-GNSS, low-power connectivity, Nanjing, Series B funding, Infotech Ventures