This initiative, supported by the UK Government, aims to provide early-stage semiconductor startups with the necessary technical and commercial assistance to launch new products. Following the successful debut of its first cohort in 2023, the second group of selected startups is set to begin their nine-month incubation period on 1st June 2024.

Administered by Silicon Catalyst.UK, a fully owned subsidiary of Silicon Catalyst LLC — a seasoned startup accelerator with engagements with hundreds of entrepreneurial teams in the semiconductor sector — the £1.3 million programme is poised to replicate its initial success. The pioneering cohort of eleven semiconductor startups is currently benefitting from halfway through their incubation. They enjoy access to custom chip design tools, industry-specific commercial insights, mentorship from seasoned professionals in the semiconductor field, and networking opportunities with potential investors and commercial partners.

Minister Saqib Bhatti, Minister for Tech and Digital Economy said: “Semiconductors underpin our economy, national security and modern way of life, and are vital to our position as a science and tech superpower. That’s why our ambitious £1bn Semiconductor Strategy is designed to grow our semiconductor sector, secure our supply chains and protect national security. Silicon Catalyst.UK is helping us to deliver exactly that. Since launching the world’s first and only incubator for semiconductor design start-ups, they have helped UK firms attract close to £7m of additional investment, creating high-value jobs and training the next generation of UK chip business leaders.”

Semiconductor startup applicants accepted into the ChipStart UK incubator will get access to electronic design tools, design IP functional blocks, semiconductor foundry prototyping, packaging and test capabilities, at either no cost or significantly discounted, through the Silicon Catalyst ecosystem. Each ChipStart UK startup is assigned a dedicated Mentor, selected from the Silicon Catalyst advisor base for their relevance to the startup, who will work with the startup over the nine-month incubation period. The Mentors will help guide the startup teams through the semiconductor industry-specific training, held 3 times per month, and then help workshop these learnings to their startup’s specific needs. The intensive and valuable training is geared to create the next generation of semiconductor business leaders for the UK.

“The first call for ChipStart UK applications last year attracted 27 high quality semiconductor startups from across the UK. To be eligible they must have raised less than £1 million of private funding. We are now reaching deep into the UK semiconductor research and innovation base for the second cohort”, said Sean Redmond, Managing Partner of Silicon Catalyst UK Ltd, “The chosen few will have a fast track to success into the global semiconductor supply chain”. 

Testament to the success of the programme are the glowing remarks from these ChipStart UK companies in Cohort #1:

Dorian Haci, CEO and co-founder of MintNeuro (a spinout from Imperial College, London) says, “access to multiple licenses of Electronic Design Automation tools at no cost and free prototype runs with TSMC, the leading foundry in the world, is accelerating our go to market plan. The training, advice and support from some of the best semiconductor experts in the world today is significantly mitigating our risks to deliver our high quality implantable medical devices for neural stimulation of the brain much faster than we thought possible. This fully funded UK Government ChipStart UK incubation, delivered by Silicon Catalyst.UK, is providing a clear path to our initial seed investment. It is providing demonstrable risk reduction in every aspect of our business plan.”

Vaire is the first chip company in the world to deliver on the promise of near zero energy AI compute. “We have made connections into the global semiconductor industry that would have been near impossible without the help of Silicon Catalyst.UK delivering this fantastic ChipStart UK incubation programme”, said Rodolfo Rosini, CEO and co-founder.

Helen Duncan, Chief Marketing Officer, for BlueShift Memory said “The training and advice we have received from the Silicon Catalyst ecosystem has helped us sharpen our value proposition and go to market strategy. Putting us on the ChipStart UK stage has enabled us to attract the right investors at the right time, and we believe it has provided a springboard for our future success.”

Tanya Mangoma, CEO and founder of HyperCIM said “to have a founder of Arm, Jamie Urquhart, as our ChipStart UK personal Mentor is gold dust. We are absolutely delighted to be one of the chosen few to be allowed to drink from the fire hydrant of global semiconductor opportunity that Silicon Catalyst.UK is pouring into us with this fabulous fully UK Government funded incubator”.

James Lewis, CEO of RED Semiconductor, said “winning a coveted place on the ChipStart UK semiconductor startup incubator delivered by Silicon Catalyst.UK has been pivotal for our go to market strategy. The semiconductor industry specific deep dive training has refined our business plan. The global market-leading customers and partner opportunities that Silicon Catalyst has delivered to us are game-changing.”

“The Silicon Catalyst ecosystem delivered through the superb ChipStart UK semiconductor startup incubator has been of immense support during our spin-out process from Edinburgh University,” said CEO and co-founder of Singular Photonics, Shahida Imani. “Their In-Kind Partners have provided free EDA tools and access to advanced TSMC foundry runs. Their advisers have built mutual respect and trust up and down the supply chains that we need to build our business in, and their deep knowledge and advice has been seminal to attract our first pre-seed investment.”