Mayfield Partners with Silicon Catalyst to Fund Silicon Startups

　　Silicon Catalyst will provide eligible startups with $150 thousand in funding and potential for more.

　　If there’s one thing that’s apparent in the tech boom of the last decade, it’s that the focus of many venture capitalists is on software-based and digital-app startups. I may be over generalizing, but many of these investors don’t understand what is commonly now called deep tech, especially since software and digital startups are easier and simpler to understand as they provide an easy route to potential exit, with low cost of entry and business models often relying on going viral and attracting volumes of users on their platforms.

　　But silicon startups have bigger barriers to entry in terms of cost, product development, and long customer development cycles. So, anything that gives them support to get to product quicker has to be a bonus. One incubator that has been gradually growing its support for the semiconductor startup ecosystem is Silicon Catalyst. The California-based company offers an ecosystem of in-kind partners that provide startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, and networking, as well as a path to funding, banking, and marketing acumen.

　　Silicon Catalyst was established in the Bay Area in California in 2015 by Rick Lazansky, Mike Noonen, Dan Armbrust, and Tarun Verma, and now has chapters in Israel, the U.K., and China. Its focus is 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 700 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the accelerator has admitted 88 companies.

　　Last week, Silicon Catalyst announced a significant partnership with venture capital firm Mayfield to foster silicon startup innovation. Mayfield will invest capital in and provide mentoring to the majority of seed stage companies admitted to the Silicon Catalyst incubator/accelerator, and evaluate them for follow-on investments.

　　In an exclusive interview with EE Times, Silicon Catalyst and Mayfield explained why such a partnership was needed.

　　“Since starting Silicon Catalyst, we’ve been able to de-risk the initial growth path for semiconductor startups,” said Silicon Catalyst CEO Pete Rodriguez. “If you’re going to partner with someone, it is important to partner with a tier one investor like Mayfield. This now allows us to be more like a Y Combinator for silicon startups.”

　　He added, “Mayfield and Silicon Catalyst share the same goal of driving semiconductor innovation and startup company market success. It is exciting to know that most seed stage companies will be eligible to receive $150 thousand at admission into the Silicon Catalyst program as a result of our alliance with Mayfield. Furthermore, this will allow startups to hit the ground running in conjunction with free shuttle runs, design tools, and IP from our more than 60 in-kind partners, which include TSMC, Synopsys, and Arm.”

　　Navin Chaddha, managing partner at Mayfield, said, “We have a strong conviction in the renaissance of silicon, a trend that has accelerated in the wake of the plateauing of Moore’s Law. Hence, we would also like to further startup innovation, and so partnering with Silicon Catalyst enables us to look at multiple emerging opportunities, especially in areas like RISC-V and chiplets, and several others that will form the potential building blocks for next generation technologies and products.”

　　Both Chaddha and Rodriguez were conscious of not sending out the wrong message in regard to the RISC-V element of that statement. Chaddha said their approach is completely architecture agnostic, and that Mayfield has backed startups developing both Arm-based products and RISC-V products. Meanwhile, Rodriguez emphasized the importance of Arm in the Silicon Catalyst ecosystem. Mayfield’s investments over the last five years have included Alif Semiconductor, Frore Systems, Fungible, Graphwear, Nuvia (acquired by Qualcomm), Recogni, and a couple of stealth startups.

　　Mayfield investments

　　Mayfield’s current and milestone semiconductor investments. (Source: Mayfield)

　　Alif Semiconductor co-founder and president Reza Kazerounian explained to me in Cambridge, U.K., earlier this year why Arm was important for its growth: he said that Alif was after a large customer base, and that meant they needed a large support ecosystem and toolchain behind their products. Conversely, Chaddha said they also have startups in Mayfield’s portfolio that are using RISC-V and are in the process of making architectural changes.

　　Over the years, Mayfield has had a track record of investing in iconic semiconductor companies such as Cypress, Inphi, LAM Research, LSI Logic, MIPS, Qtera, S3, and Sandisk. “The Silicon Catalyst team have been unwavering supporters of entrepreneurs across the semi ecosystem, spanning photonics, IP, MEMS, sensors, materials, and life science innovation teams worldwide,” Chaddha said. “They have their finger on the pulse of the major societal trends and technology inflection points that are powering this [silicon] renaissance. Together, we are excited to watch many industries being revolutionized by the new wave of semiconductor startups. It is an honor to partner with Silicon Catalyst to nurture the wave of entrepreneurs bringing silicon back to Silicon Valley.”

　　How the partnership will work

　　So, how exactly will the partnership between Silicon Catalyst and Mayfield work? The aim of the partnership is to provide mentorship and investment to companies coming into Silicon Catalyst. The incubator has two primary screening cycles, but will consider companies out of phase. Seed stage companies will be eligible to receive $150 thousand in funding, though it’s important to emphasize that not all the companies receive the funding automatically—they will go through Mayfield’s own criteria for investing, too. Chaddha said the fund amount is flexible, so there is no cap as such. I also asked whether it would be limited to those companies based in Silicon Valley only, and Chaddha said they would look globally.

　　Navin Chaddha (left) with Pete Rodriguez (right). (Source: Silicon Catalyst).

　　As these incubated companies progress through incubation, they will be eligible to apply to Silicon Catalyst Angels and receive additionally matching investments of up to $250 thousand per company from the new alliance. Finally, startup companies that received these investments and execute on their plans will be at the top of the pipeline for future investments through Mayfield’s regular investment funds.

　　Chaddha said the key benefit of the partnership is that it will help silicon startups lower the cost of getting products to market and accelerate the path to design wins. Sean Redmond, managing partner for the U.K. branch of Silicon Catalyst, said, “What we are seeing is that for semiconductor startups, time is not their best friend. Hence, the more you take out the risk the better, and having Mayfield back our startups is a huge benefit.”