Dutch VC helps Philips spin off chip-security startup

LONDON — Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV has enlisted the help of Prime Technology Ventures (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) to spin off Intrinsic-ID NV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands).

Prime Technology Ventures (PTV) has provided funding for Intrinsic-ID through its PTV III fund. At the same time Philips has become a partner in PTV. The amounts invested by Philips in PTV and by PTV in Intrinsic-ID were not disclosed.

The Intrinisc-ID technology is called Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). It uses unique physical characteristics of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to 'bind' the intellectual property (IP) to the hardware, so it will only run on the FPGA to which it is registered. The technology is also applicable to ASICs and general purpose processors.

The PUF technology is also suitable for protecting IP in design environments, enabling secure 'try-before-you-buy' business models. The same technology is used to protect embedded IP in physical products through product authentication, eliminating the risk of cloning. Each chip is registered on the production line, generating a unique activation code without which the IP will not run. Guaranteed 100 percent reporting allows IP licensors to prevent overbuilding.

Intrinsic-ID is seeking to set itself up as the source of activation codes allowing IP to run and as a facilitator of production and licensing as a trusted third-party.

"Intellectual property theft, cloning and counterfeiting is costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars and our ability to provide total security to our customers' production flows, whilst also making their products tamper-proof is very compelling for them," said Daniel Schobben, CEO of Intrinsic-ID, in a statement. "With Intrinsic-ID's technology, companies can confidently license their IP through a secure online platform without impacting licensees’ access to the IP."