Silicon Rising

Several months ago, I was talking to several partners of an Asian incubator.   They were focusing on “new technology,” various apps, other IoT-related areas, “not old ones, like semiconductors.”  Ugh!

I felt like I was part of the US steel industry and living in the rust belt.  😉

So it was quite a pleasant surprise to get the invitation to Silicon Sunrise, a coming out event put on by a new, months-old organization, Silicon Catalyst.   And I was curious, as I bet the other invitees and attendees were.  It looked like Silicon Catalyst was a new investment organization that possibly focused on silicon.

First, this is the first event that mentioned “silicon” (I think) in years.    Second, a VC or accelerator or incubator will fund semiconductor startups?!?!!?!   Talk about going against conventional thinking!  We’ve heard all the arguments: it’s the era of software; semiconductors cost too much to get to viability and take too long to exit.

But that’s exactly what Silicon Sunrise introduced:  Silicon Catalyst is wanting to bring back the silicon in Silicon Valley, as noted author and Silicon Valley observer Mike Malone told us at the event.   (Sounds like what one other new incubator said a couple of years ago.)

And Silicon Catalyst appears to be looking at the whole semiconductor ecosystem from design through manufacturing and final test.  Silicon Catalyst has recruited partners to vet, advise and guide silicon startups.

It’s high time for a technological and business resurgence to spark new development in the elemental building block for the world’s electronic industry.  We’ve needed this catalyst for awhile.

Kudos to the founding team at Silicon Catalyst.

For more information on Silicon Catalyst go to http://sicatalyst.com/.

Tags: accelerators, Avaya Stadium, EDA, Electronic Design Automation, final test, incubators, semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductors, Silicon, Silicon Catalyst, Silicon Sunrise, silicon valley, startups, VC, Venture Capital

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2015 at 7:59 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.