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.”
“We partnered with Silicon Catalyst in 2022 and have been excited to watch them nurture entrepreneurs bringing silicon back to Silicon Valley,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner Mayfield. “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.”
“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,” said Pete Rodriguez, Managing Director of Silicon Catalyst Ventures and CEO of Silicon Catalyst. “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.”
