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jackOfManyTrades
To me (as an employee of a Japanese company of 15 years) the elephant in the ...
peter.clarke
EE Times' Silicon 60: Hot startups to watch
Peter Clarke
10/4/2012 2:00 PM EDT
R to Z
R
RFaxis Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) was founded in January 2008. It uses a BiCMOS manufacturing process in conjunction with its own technology to create integrated RF front-end ICs for wireless standards including Bluetooth, WLAN, Zigbee, WiMax and mobile phone markets. www.rfaxis.com
Rocketick Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) was founded in 2008 in Ramat Gan, Israel, by a group of experts on hardware-assisted-acceleration. It is a pioneer in GPU-based simulation acceleration for chip verification, which has received backing from Nvidia Corp. and Peregrine Ventures. Its first product, RocketSim, is said to solve functional verification bottlenecks by complementing simulators with GPU-based acceleration for highly complex designs. www.rocketick.com
S
Samplify Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), founded in 2006, is a fabless mixed-signal semiconductor company with expertise compression that combines digital processing and high performance analog to create intelligent data converters and energy efficient data handling systems. www.samplify.com
Senseg Oy (Espoo, Finland) has developed technology that delivers tactile feedback sensations to a touchscreen user's fingertips. Founded in 2006, Senseg is backed by Ambient Sound Investments, the investment vehicle that helped launch Skype, among others. www.senseg.com
Skorpios Technologies Inc. (Albuquerque, N.M.) was founded in 2009 and is focused on commercializing monolithically integrated active photonics into wafer-scale standard CMOS processes. Skorpios has received venture capital from Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital. www.skorpiosinc.com
SolChip Ltd. (Haifa, Israel), founded in 2009, has developed intellectual property for integrated VLSI-photovoltaic devices powered by solar energy. www.sol-chip.com
SoundChip SA (Lausanne, Switzerland) was founded in 2011 by a team of experts in electro-acoustics. They developed the High Definition Personal Audio reference model and are licensing intellectual property for use in electronic audio systems www.soundchip.ch
Spin Transfer Technologies Inc. (Boston) was founded in 2007, to commercialize orthogonal spin transfer magnetoresistive random access memory, a technology originally discovered by Andrew Kent at New York University. www.spintransfer.com
Stion Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) manufactures thin-film solar modules. Stion was founded in 2006 and is backed by venture capital investors, including Khosla Ventures, VentureTech Alliance, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Braemar Energy Ventures. Stion also has a strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. www.stion.com
SuVolta Inc. (Los Gatos, Calif.), formed in 2005 under the name DSM Solutions Inc., develops and licenses CMOS-compatible semiconductor technologies used to reduce power consumption. Its PowerShrink technology is based on a deeply depleted channel transistor that is manufactured in epitaxially grown, doped silicon on the surface of a conventional bulk CMOS wafer. www.suvolta.com
T
Transphorm Inc. (Goleta, Calif.) was founded in 2007 to leverage the inherent power efficiency of gallium nitride for power applications. The company is taking a systems-level approach to create a process it intends to scale beyond 600-V breakdown voltage. It is developing manufacturing facility at its Goleta location and is backed by several venture capital firms including Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. www.transphormusa.com
V
Vayavya Labs Pvt. Ltd. (Belgaum, India), founded in 2006, was named for the Sanskrit word for northwest. The ESL-oriented company provides tools to enhance the productivity of embedded system designers and programmers. Vayavya provides customers with ESL products and engineering services. www.vayavyalabs.com
Vector Fabrics BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands) is developing tools for the design and implementation of multicore, multi-threaded applications and embedded systems. Founded in 2007 the company released its first product, vfAnalyst, in May 2010. www.vectorfabrics.com
W
Wilocity Ltd. (Caesarea, Israel), founded in March 2007 by executive and engineers from Intel's Wi-Fi Centrino group, Wilocity is developing 60-GHz multi-gigabit wireless chip sets based on the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) specification, for both the mobile computing platform and peripheral markets. www.wilocity.com
X
XMOS Ltd. (Bristol, England) is a fabless semiconductor company founded by renowned computer scientist David May in 2006. The company has developed a range of event-driven processors. Designs are created in high-level languages, delivering hardware from a software-based design flow. www.xmos.com
The Next Silicon 60
Our list of emerging startups, first published in April 2004, is updated regularly to reflect current technology and market conditions. To make way for newcomers, some companies have dropped off the list either because they have been acquired, moved on to an initial public offering of shares or have simply matured.
We welcome nominations of emerging startups for inclusion in a future iteration of the EE Times Silicon 60 list. Nominations should be supported by a short citation explaining why a company merits consideration on a future list. Send comments and nominations to Peter Clarke (peter.clarke@ubm.com).
R
RFaxis Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) was founded in January 2008. It uses a BiCMOS manufacturing process in conjunction with its own technology to create integrated RF front-end ICs for wireless standards including Bluetooth, WLAN, Zigbee, WiMax and mobile phone markets. www.rfaxis.com
Rocketick Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) was founded in 2008 in Ramat Gan, Israel, by a group of experts on hardware-assisted-acceleration. It is a pioneer in GPU-based simulation acceleration for chip verification, which has received backing from Nvidia Corp. and Peregrine Ventures. Its first product, RocketSim, is said to solve functional verification bottlenecks by complementing simulators with GPU-based acceleration for highly complex designs. www.rocketick.com
S
Samplify Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), founded in 2006, is a fabless mixed-signal semiconductor company with expertise compression that combines digital processing and high performance analog to create intelligent data converters and energy efficient data handling systems. www.samplify.com
Sand 9 Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.), founded in 2007, offers MEMS devices that use piezoelectric actuation to meet phase noise and short-term stability requirements for wireless and wired applications. The resonator design, in conjunction with a low phase-noise oscillator, provides high performance timing, which can reduce packet loss and enhance network efficiency in communications applications. The company was backed by Intel Capital among others in a mid-2012 funding round. www.sand9.com
Seeo Inc. (Hayward, Calif.) was founded in 2007 with an exclusive license for advanced technology from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the goal of creating high-energy rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Seeo was established with initial funding from Khosla Ventures. www.seeo.comSenseg Oy (Espoo, Finland) has developed technology that delivers tactile feedback sensations to a touchscreen user's fingertips. Founded in 2006, Senseg is backed by Ambient Sound Investments, the investment vehicle that helped launch Skype, among others. www.senseg.com
Skorpios Technologies Inc. (Albuquerque, N.M.) was founded in 2009 and is focused on commercializing monolithically integrated active photonics into wafer-scale standard CMOS processes. Skorpios has received venture capital from Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital. www.skorpiosinc.com
SolChip Ltd. (Haifa, Israel), founded in 2009, has developed intellectual property for integrated VLSI-photovoltaic devices powered by solar energy. www.sol-chip.com
SoundChip SA (Lausanne, Switzerland) was founded in 2011 by a team of experts in electro-acoustics. They developed the High Definition Personal Audio reference model and are licensing intellectual property for use in electronic audio systems www.soundchip.ch
Spin Transfer Technologies Inc. (Boston) was founded in 2007, to commercialize orthogonal spin transfer magnetoresistive random access memory, a technology originally discovered by Andrew Kent at New York University. www.spintransfer.com
Stion Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) manufactures thin-film solar modules. Stion was founded in 2006 and is backed by venture capital investors, including Khosla Ventures, VentureTech Alliance, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Braemar Energy Ventures. Stion also has a strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. www.stion.com
SuVolta Inc. (Los Gatos, Calif.), formed in 2005 under the name DSM Solutions Inc., develops and licenses CMOS-compatible semiconductor technologies used to reduce power consumption. Its PowerShrink technology is based on a deeply depleted channel transistor that is manufactured in epitaxially grown, doped silicon on the surface of a conventional bulk CMOS wafer. www.suvolta.com
T
Transphorm Inc. (Goleta, Calif.) was founded in 2007 to leverage the inherent power efficiency of gallium nitride for power applications. The company is taking a systems-level approach to create a process it intends to scale beyond 600-V breakdown voltage. It is developing manufacturing facility at its Goleta location and is backed by several venture capital firms including Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. www.transphormusa.com
V
Vayavya Labs Pvt. Ltd. (Belgaum, India), founded in 2006, was named for the Sanskrit word for northwest. The ESL-oriented company provides tools to enhance the productivity of embedded system designers and programmers. Vayavya provides customers with ESL products and engineering services. www.vayavyalabs.com
Vector Fabrics BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands) is developing tools for the design and implementation of multicore, multi-threaded applications and embedded systems. Founded in 2007 the company released its first product, vfAnalyst, in May 2010. www.vectorfabrics.com
W
Wilocity Ltd. (Caesarea, Israel), founded in March 2007 by executive and engineers from Intel's Wi-Fi Centrino group, Wilocity is developing 60-GHz multi-gigabit wireless chip sets based on the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) specification, for both the mobile computing platform and peripheral markets. www.wilocity.com
X
XMOS Ltd. (Bristol, England) is a fabless semiconductor company founded by renowned computer scientist David May in 2006. The company has developed a range of event-driven processors. Designs are created in high-level languages, delivering hardware from a software-based design flow. www.xmos.com
The Next Silicon 60
Our list of emerging startups, first published in April 2004, is updated regularly to reflect current technology and market conditions. To make way for newcomers, some companies have dropped off the list either because they have been acquired, moved on to an initial public offering of shares or have simply matured.
We welcome nominations of emerging startups for inclusion in a future iteration of the EE Times Silicon 60 list. Nominations should be supported by a short citation explaining why a company merits consideration on a future list. Send comments and nominations to Peter Clarke (peter.clarke@ubm.com).
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sranje
10/4/2012 9:34 PM EDT
Very interesting - thank you Peter.
It seems that Power GaN (3 companies) and 60GHz wireless (3-4 companies) spaces dominate
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
2/12/2013 10:29 AM EST
Agreed
http://bit.ly/dI3hcF
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Azuretex
10/5/2012 1:00 PM EDT
Indeed interesting, and I have met a few.
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dasgeirsson
10/5/2012 1:37 PM EDT
It would be interesting to list out the dropped companies, and what happened with each of them!
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GREAT-Terry
10/5/2012 11:35 PM EDT
I also have interest to know which "dropped" company has now been acquired or moved to IPO. This shows how successful those startups are.
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peter.clarke
10/8/2012 10:32 AM EDT
While it is possible to go back to v13.0 and play spot the difference.
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fundamentals
10/8/2012 11:58 AM EDT
More than half the companies (32 out of 60) were founded in 2007 or earlier. There was a time when a start-up company was considered a dead-end after three or four years maximum. Perhaps something has changed in the past decade. Perhaps the VCs are more patient nowadays, or your list is highly skewed and it is not tracking the younger startups up close.
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peter.clarke
10/8/2012 1:08 PM EDT
@fundamentals
Things have changed in the last decade. It takes longer to get more complex technologies to market successfully.
The days of back-of-the-envelope business plan, $20 million invested, IPO and 10X ROI are said to be long gone.
VCs are not more patient but sometimes they are prepared to keep punting money if they think their proteges have a chance.
For the first few years of many startups' existence they say very little or nothing. Some don't have websites to avoid the risk of revealing anything. This, by definition, makes them companies that are difficult to watch.
But we do keep track of younger companies.
The other thing that is changing and has been remarked on many times is that VC money for semiconductor companies is increasingly scarse.
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rick.merritt
2/7/2013 12:07 PM EST
I have heard jokes in Silicon Valley for some time now about startups that are on funding rounds X, Y and Z ;-)
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docdivakar
10/18/2012 2:32 PM EDT
23 out of 60 are based in California! Nearly 40% of the startups. I wonder what the number was for 2011?
MP Divakar
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Bob @ JVD Inc.
10/23/2012 4:22 PM EDT
So when is a startup no longer a startup? Some of these companies got their start 5-6 years ago. Do you get to stay on the list until you get acquired or your investors finally give up?
Maybe you should consider doing an expose on mid stage companies.... separate from start-ups... Startups should have an expiration date... maybe 3 yrs from founding...
Bob @ JVD
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peter.clarke
2/8/2013 8:35 AM EST
Bob,
Three years is too short. Some companies don't have anything to say publicly after three years.
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Mayank.Agarwal
10/31/2012 12:20 AM EDT
Kudos to Indians working at Silicon valley.Almost in about half of the companies there is an Indian as founder or co founder.It would have been great had more companies from Bangalore would be there in this list but 2 are still there.
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Comfortable
2/6/2013 12:14 PM EST
You wrote, "To make way for newcomers, some companies have dropped off the list either because they have been acquired, moved on to an initial public offering of shares or have simply matured."
My question is, "Are there no dropouts due to failure?" That's astounding that EETimes is able to always pick 60 companies that never fail. VCs on the other hand fully expect over half their investments to fail. And most entrepreneurs will tell you that they learned more from failing than succeeding. At least in America, failure is not a dirty word. We should here about those stories as well if for no other reason than to know what didn't fly.
Also, I note that Quantance is on the list but not Nujira. Nujira is making substantially more progress in the exact same space with a substantially larger patent portfolio.
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peter.clarke
2/7/2013 10:06 AM EST
Nujira was a member of the Silicon 60 for a number of iterations.
As far as I remember the company was founded in 2002 and at 10 or 11 years old they are still private, but it is hard to class them as a startup.
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john.moor
2/8/2013 5:28 AM EST
Hi Peter: when is a start up no longer a start up? That's a good question as there are no hard or fast rules. As part of the semiconductor start-up alumni I tend to think of accession from the start up ranks is more about financial maturity than time measures... there's an argument to say that all the while a company is being funded (i.e. on the way to being profitable) then it could be classed as a start-up. Let's be realistic here - semiconductor start-ups are an endangered species for a number of reasons - not least because the old fabless model takes (on average) 10 years to get firmly off the ground... we've seen the evolution of new models in the past 6 or 7 years which seek to reduce investment and time scales and ultimately the risk to investment as a response. On the question of Nujira - I still class them as a start up. They've had an interesting journey which flies in the face of the trend. Whilst many investors are encouraging start ups away from the fabless model, in Nujira's case they were actively encouraged to go fabless! Hence they may be xx years old but their foray into the fabless start up land has been much more recent... so I class them firmly as a start up (oh and they've received money fairly recently and investing that in development).
Thanks for maintaining this list over the years - always of great interest.
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peter.clarke
2/8/2013 8:22 AM EST
Hi John
Interesting points.
However, I don't think we should just use startup as an alternative to privately-held or as a euphemism for "not-yet-commercially-successful"
Of course development timescales may differ by industry segment.
Certainly startups are often stealthy for a couple of years before they are even to start their tilt at the market.
There are some circumstances where engineers form a company....go away and do something else.....and only later start to develop their business. So you end up with X years of existence but only Y years of endeavor.
There are no hard and fast rules but i think it is hard to class a ten-year old company as a startup.
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Traces
2/6/2013 1:31 PM EST
Bob @ JVD:
A start-up is no longer a start-up when it reaches an exit: IPO, acquisition, or shut-down.
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Traces
2/6/2013 1:34 PM EST
@comfortable:
VCs claim to do greater than break-even on 30% of companies funded, but everyone expects this is closer to 10% in reality.
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smartbost
2/7/2013 9:43 AM EST
I don't know what criteria was used to determine these, but certainly there are a few that in my opinion are missing: Finsix (Boston, MA), and Arctic Sand being two of them
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yalanand
2/11/2013 3:28 AM EST
@smartbost, thanks for the info. If I am not wrong Arctic sand is spin-off of MIT ?
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peter.clarke
2/7/2013 10:07 AM EST
@Smartbost
Thanks for the tips
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yalanand
2/11/2013 3:27 AM EST
@Peter thanks for the compiled list. I am curious to know what is the criteria for start-up ? Do you consider a company which is started 8 years back as start-up ?
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
2/12/2013 10:29 AM EST
Good info and great article.
http://bit.ly/dI3hcF
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toto555
2/12/2013 11:39 AM EST
Peter, what about Riviera Waves?
start-up developing WiFi 802.11 a, b, g and selling it as IP. OK, it's a spin-off (Indian design service) but they run in 100% start-up mode... and it look like they could be successful.
They are based in France, is it an issue? (joke)
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peter.clarke
2/13/2013 5:55 AM EST
@toto555
Thanks for the tip.
Being based in France is not an issue.
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jackOfManyTrades
5/2/2013 3:14 AM EDT
To me (as an employee of a Japanese company of 15 years) the elephant in the room is that there are no Japanese companies on the list; nor can I remember there ever being one; nor could I name a single Japanese startup, despite have visited about a dozen times.
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