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Silicon Catalyst Ventures launched to support Early-stage Semiconductor Startups

Led by a team of seasoned investment and technology experts, in close collaboration with the Silicon Catalyst incubator

 

8 Investments completed in Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies 

Silicon Valley, Calif. and Hsinchu, Taiwan, June 24, 2024 – Announcing the launch of Silicon Catalyst Ventures (SCV), a newly formed Delaware Series LLC that is deploying US$10M to US$20M this year for its first series and is focused on investing in early-stage entrepreneurial teams developing transformative semiconductor-based innovations. SCV will fund companies primarily in North America, UK, EU, and Israel. SCV also plans on investing in most early-stage companies admitted into the Silicon Catalyst incubator.

 

The SCV investment team brings deep industry insight, spanning investment, technologies, and the diverse market segments served by the semiconductor industry. As the world has become aware, semiconductors are vital to all aspects of our lives and businesses.

 

Silicon Catalyst Ventures has been established to uniquely select and fund the most promising semiconductor startups, covering AI, communications, photonics, MEMS, sensors, IP, materials, and life sciences. The investment team, led by Founding Managing Director Dr. Shih-Wei Sun, former CEO of United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), who joined Silicon Catalyst as an advisor and investor, as well as a member of the Silicon Catalyst Angels Investment group for the past two years, stated:

 

“Silicon Catalyst Ventures was formed as an extension of Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only incubator + accelerator focused on semiconductor solutions. It has been formed primarily, but not exclusively, to fund and foster Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies.,” stated Dr. Sun. “This close association between our fund and the Silicon Catalyst incubator affords investors unique access to startup teams whose technology and businesses are de-risked throughout a thorough and rigorous incubator screening process and then, when accepted, through Silicon Catalyst’s world-class two-year incubation. With our top-ranked semiconductor LPs, we bring additional ecosystem and supply-chain values to our startups. Silicon Catalyst Ventures is looking forward to tapping into the immense financial and societal value of our industry in this Silicon Renaissance era.”

 

Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner Mayfield

We partnered with Silicon Catalyst in 2022 and have been excited to watch them nurture entrepreneurs bringing silicon back to Silicon Valley. The venture fund announced today expands the reach of their incubator program with the ability to partner with global transformative semiconductor-based teams. We look forward to continuing our collaboration.”

 

Pete Rodriguez, Managing Director of Silicon Catalyst Ventures and CEO of Silicon Catalyst

“Over the past nine years, Silicon Catalyst has built an investor ecosystem of over 300 VCs, Angels, Angel groups, CVCs, and Family Offices to fund our startups’ journeys. Silicon Catalyst Ventures is the next step forward, leveraging five years of Silicon Catalyst Angels and its 32% IRR and also powered by precious pro-rata in nearly 100 companies! I am pleased to report that SCV has hit the ground running and has already deployed a couple of million dollars in eight Silicon Catalyst Portfolio companies.” 

 

The initial SCV investments in companies from the Silicon Catalyst Incubator include:

 
 

Applied Brain Research

 

Intelligence for real world applications

 

Applied Brain Research's innovative hardware and software, deploys cloud-like machine learning capabilities locally to any edge device for application in smart-enabled products.

 

Eridan

 

Eridan is a rapidly-growing startup, building 5G radios to enable abundant wireless connectivity everywhere in the world.

EXOKĒRYX

 

Powering EV research to realize earlier disease detection. EXOKĒRYX is speeding up the fight against cancer and other diseases by putting breakthrough technology in the hands of leading researchers.

Owl Autonomous Imaging

 

Owl is all about safety, especially pedestrian safety.

 

Owl is developing HD thermal image sensors and computer vision software, singularly focused on improving visibility in no light, bright light, and degraded visual environments.

Q-Pixel

 

Overhauling Decades of LED Display Technology

 

Q-Pixel aims to overcome the obstacle of high fabrication costs and to dramatically streamline the LED display assembly processes.

RAAAM

 

The Best in Class On-Chip Memory

 

50% Area Reduction vs. SRAM

 

10x Power Reduction vs. SRAM

Salience Labs

 

AI requires new hardware.

 

Salience Labs is developing an ultra-high throughput, low latency Photonic Tensor Processing Unit.

Zepsor Technologies

 

Zero-power infrared sensors

 

Sensible sensors with uninterrupted operation and unprecedented accuracy

 

Zepsor’s technology does not consume any battery power to monitor the environment in standby mode.

Joining Dr. Sun and Mr. Rodriguez in the leadership team of Silicon Catalyst Ventures:

 

Laura Swan – General Partner and Portfolio Manager

Laura oversees portfolio company management at SCV. Laura is a Managing Partner with Silicon Catalyst and the Vice President of Operations for Silicon Catalyst Angels.

 

Kai Chen – General Partner and Fund Manager

Kai oversees fund administration and investor relations at SCV. He is the founder and CEO of OceanIQ Capital, an investment advisory firm that he started in 2013.

 

Julian Lee – Managing Director

Mr. Lee has 35 years of professional experience in investment banking and the telecom/media industry.

 

Silicon Catalyst Incubator Application Deadline

The deal flow for Silicon Catalyst Ventures is primarily sourced from companies that are admitted to the Silicon Catalyst Incubator. Early-stage semiconductor companies that are admitted to the Incubator will be eligible to receive an investment from Silicon Catalyst Ventures.

 

The application deadline for Silicon Catalyst is July 12, 2024; details can be found at

https://siliconcatalyst.com/application

 

Contact Information

Website: www.sicatalystvc.com

 

If you are a startup and interested in applying for funding, please apply through the Silicon Catalyst Incubator – www.siliconcatalyst.com

 

If you are interested in becoming a Limited Partner, contact laura@sicatalystvc.com

About Silicon Catalyst “It’s about what’s next”

Silicon Catalyst is the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating semiconductor solutions, built on a comprehensive coalition of in-kind and strategic partners to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of development. More than 1,000 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted over 100 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator/accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their company’s novel technology solutions. Over the past nine years, the Silicon Catalyst model has been proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors.

 

More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.com,  www.siliconcatalyst.uk and www.siliconcatalystangels.com