Latest funding will accelerate global expansion and enhance capabilities of design platform SOC solutions
SAN JOSE, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 16, 2022 — SEMIFIVE, a leading design solution provider and pioneer of platform-based custom silicon solutions, today announced it has raised $109 million in its Series B funding round. This brings the total capital raised for SEMIFIVE to $147 million since its inception in 2019 with investments from BonAngels, Game Changer, Korea Investment Partners, LB Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Pavilion Capital (a subsidiary of Temasek).
Proceeds from this round will be used to accelerate design platform deployment, new technologies and methodologies, scale R&D and engineering teams and build up new capabilities in the areas of IP solutions. Within three years of its founding, SEMIFIVE has established itself as a global player and is the fastest growing Samsung Foundry SAFETM DSP with more than 300 employees worldwide representing development and sales organizations in the United States, India, Vietnam and Korea.
SEMIFIVE’s continued investment backing is attributable to a unique business model that will transform the rapidly changing semiconductor industry. Large companies such as Apple and Tesla have been driving innovation through custom semiconductors, but the challenge of long development cycles and prohibitive costs present key barriers for many companies. This is in stark contrast to the software industry, where anyone can easily develop apps, enabling more innovations.
“SEMIFIVE’s key focus is to enable innovation by making custom silicon accessible and affordable. We envision ourselves as the new global hub of custom silicon,” said Brandon Cho, CEO and founder of SEMIFIVE. “With the strong support from our investors, we are accelerating our strategy in the U.S. which is a pivotal base for business expansion and added capabilities. Anticipating strong growth, we are scaling our sales, customer and technical support organizations.”
SEMIFIVE’s platform SoC approach significantly reduces chip development cost and schedule, enabling more diverse industry players to innovate and challenge the semiconductor landscape. To date, several AI-based semiconductor startups such as FuriosaAI, Rebellions and Mobilint have signed on as customers. The custom silicon chips are designed using Samsung Foundry’s advanced FinFET process nodes. In addition to AI, SEMIFIVE offers design platforms for edge compute, AIoT, and data acceleration. The company will also add high performance compute and automotive platforms to its portfolio.
About SEMIFIVE
SEMIFIVE is the pioneer of platform based SoC design, working with customers to implement innovative ideas into custom silicon in the most efficient way. Our SoC platforms offer a powerful springboard for new chip designs and leverage configurable domain-specific architectures and pre-validated key IP pools. We offer comprehensive spec-to-system capabilities with end-to-end solutions so that custom SoCs can be realized faster, with reduced cost and risks for key applications such as data center or AI-enabled IoT. With a strong partnership with Samsung Foundry as a leading SAFETM DSP partner, as well as the larger ecosystem, SEMIFIVE provides a one-stop shop solution for any SoC design needs. For more information, please visit www.semifive.com
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Contact:
Kelvin Low
General Manager, SEMIFIVE US Inc
kelvin.low@semifive.com
