mCube has raised $37 million to make accelerometers smaller and cheaper

Not too many startups these days make large quantities of tangible objects. MCube decided not to say much until it had produced 60 million things. To be specific, mCube says it has shipped more than 60 million extremely small semiconductor chips–comparable to a grain of sand, not the fingernail-sized variety that the likes of Intel and its competitors sell. MCube, which is based in San Jose, Calif., is one of very few semiconductor companies to receive venture funding in recent years. It is announcing a $37 million infusion on Wednesday. The company makes motion-sensor chips, also known as accelerometers, which are used in just about every smartphone these days. The devices help detect speed and movement by the physical motion of tiny components on the chips, a category of product known by the acronym MEMS, for micro-electro-mechanical systems. A special attraction, says CEO Ben Lee, is a proprietary design that allows mCube to undercut the production cost of other makers of accelerometer chips. At the same time, a large market is emerging beyond the smartphones and tablets that have used most mCube chips today–in smartwatches, activity monitors and other devices that people use on the go.