Press Release
July 12, 2023

Silicon Catalyst Announces Winners of the Semiconductor Startups Contest in partnership with Arm

Top Winner is Equal1, Runners-up are SpiNNcloud & weeteq

Silicon Valley, California and Cambridge, UK, July 12, 2023 - Silicon Catalyst, the world's only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating semiconductor solutions, is pleased to announce the winners of the just-concluded “Silicon Startups Contest” in partnership with Arm. The top winner was Equal1 from Ireland, and the two runners-up finalists were SpiNNcloud from Germany and weeteq from Scotland.

“Building on our close working relationship with Arm, as both a Silicon Catalyst Strategic Partner and an In-Kind Partner, we launched our world-wide contest for early-stage entrepreneurial teams to compete for valuable commercial and technical support from Arm. The resulting applicant companies represented an impressive range of technologies and application targets, as well as geographic diversity,” stated Pete Rodriguez, CEO of Silicon Catalyst. “The response to this contest was a clear indicator of the breadth of products in the Arm portfolio, adding to the significant value of their Flexible Access for Startups program. The applicant companies represented the most interesting emerging applications using Arm technologies, including quantum computing, consumer products, massively parallel AI, cryptography and wireless communications. I congratulate these three winning companies and look forward for our extensive Silicon Catalyst ecosystem to support their business growth.”

The contest offered an opportunity for silicon startups to win valuable commercial, technical and marketing support from Arm and Silicon Catalyst. The overall top winner, Equal1, will now receive Arm credit worth $150,000. In addition, Equal1, SpiNNcloud and weeteq will receive:

  • Access to the full Arm Flexible Access for Startups program, which includes:

    • No cost, easy access to an extensive SoC design portfolio including a wide range of Cortex processors, Mali graphics, Corstone reference systems, CoreLink and CoreSight system IP.

    • Free tools, training, and support

    • $0 license fee to produce prototypes

  • Cost-free Arm Design Check-in Review with Arm’s experienced support team

  • Entry to the invitation-only Arm ecosystem event and be featured, along with the networking and connecting with Arm’s broad portfolio of silicon, OEM and software partners

  • Investor pitch review and preparation support by Silicon Catalyst, and an opportunity to present to the Silicon Catalyst Angels group and their investment syndication network.

Top Winner

Equal1 is a pioneering silicon quantum computing company dedicated to making quantum computing affordable and accessible. Quantum Computing offers unprecedented potential to unlock societal advancements in climate modelling, carbon capture, drug discovery, and AI modelling. Equal1's pioneering Quantum System-on-a-Chip (QSoC) processors, now in their third generation, integrate entire quantum computing systems onto a single chip, merging millions of qubits, control systems, and real-time error correction capabilities. These QSoCs, built via standard foundry processes, will form the core of the world's most powerful, compact quantum computers, designed for deployment into standard HPC environments. As one of the top patent holders in quantum silicon, Equal1 is paving the path to the future of quantum computing. Learn more at www.equal1.com.

 

Runners-Up

SpiNNcloud delivers a unique solution combining Deep Learning, Symbolic AI, and Neuromorphic computing. Our platform provides a real-time, low-latency, and energy-efficient cognitive AI platform leveraging cutting-edge research from the Human Brain Project. More information at www.spinncloud.com

 

weeteq is pioneering a new approach to circuit design that defines a new technology category of ‘circuit-level machine learning’ which we call Ultra Edge®. Ultra Edge® enables circuit-level, sensor-independent, predictive performance planning and unsupervised performance improvement for every closed-loop control system. More information at www.weeteq.com

About Silicon Catalyst

“It’s about what’s next”

Silicon Catalyst is the world’s only incubator focused 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 900 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted 97 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator/accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their companies’ novel technology solutions. Over the past eight years, the Silicon Catalyst model has proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors. Silicon Catalyst has been named the Semiconductor Review’s 2021 Top-10 Solutions Company award winner.

The Silicon Catalyst Angels was established in July 2019 as a separate organization to provide access to seed and Series A funding for Silicon Catalyst portfolio companies.

More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.uk, www.siliconcatalyst.com and www.siliconcatalystangels.com.