CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
22 June 2004
Company News
EDA Software Firm Silicon Design Systems Secures $6.7M in Second Round of Financing
Silicon Design Systems, Inc., the next-generation physical design company that just introduced a new convergent routing technology for complex chip design, announced it has secured $6.7 million in the new funding by Carmel Ventures and Infinity Venture Capital. First round investor Gilo Ventures also participated in this round. The funds will be used as working capital to further the company's research and development, and marketing initiatives. In addition, the company announced the appointment of Jacob Greidinger as vice president of R&D.
According to Davidi Gilo, chairman of Silicon Design Systems, "We are excited to welcome Carmel Ventures and Infinity Venture Capital as new investors that perceive the strength of our technology and direction. We believe their contribution in guiding Silicon Design Systems from a technology phase to a product phase will be instrumental in our future success." Gilo Ventures was the sole investor in SDS until this round of financing and also was the sole investor in Series A funding completed in 2003.
Greidinger, who has global responsibility for the company's R&D efforts, brings to this position more than 20 years of experience in management, design and development of highly complex EDA products. Prior to joining Silicon Design Systems, he was vice president of technology and R&D at Monterey Design Systems. Previously, he co-founded and was vice president at Aristo Technology. He also has held various R&D and management positions at Compass Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, Silicon Compiler Systems and Daisy Systems. Greidinger holds three U.S. patents and has filed four additional patents.
Carmel Ventures is Israel's largest software-focused fund. Carmel provides active, hands-on support to its Israeli, European and US portfolio companies. Carmel has offices in Herzeliya, Israel and London, and a worldwide network of industry, strategic and investment resources. With $171 million in commitments from a strong investor base that includes Citigroup, GroveStreet, AOL Time Warner, Siemens, The Partners Group, Swiss Life, VCM and other leading worldwide investors, Carmel provides significant capital and support throughout the growth cycle of its portfolio companies. For more information, please visit http://www.carmelventures.com
Infinity ( http://www.israel-infinity.com/ ) manages approximately $200 million in funds for investment. Infinity was founded in 1997, as a successor of the Nitzanim Fund (1993). The principal investors in Infinity are Clal Industries, GE Asset Management, the American investment bank Friedman Billings Ramsey (FBR), and the founders of Nitzanim-the Rind/Butler Group and Banque Nationale de Paris of France. To date, Infinity has invested in close to 40 technology companies including Shopping.com, Shellcase, Galil Medical, Proneuron Biotechnologies, Orsus, Aprion Digital (merged with Scitex Vision), Native Networks, VisionCare Opthalmic Technologies (merged with Amersham), RedBend, Identify Software and BrainsGate. At the beginning of 2003, Infinity took over the private venture holdings of the Clal Industries Group. The new portfolio includes approximately 25 companies, of which the most prominent are Saifun Semiconductors, Cyber-Ark and Cydoor.
Gilo Ventures is a U.S.-based venture capital firm focusing on early stage investments in semiconductors, enterprise software and telecommunications. Managing partner Davidi Gilo is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record including DSP Group, DSP Communications (sold to Intel for $1.6B), Audiocodes, Nogatech (sold to Zoran for $170M), Zen Research (currently private) and Vyyo. Mr. Gilo also was the founder, chairman and CEO of semiconductor companies DSP Group, DSP Communications and Zen Research. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of Vyyo, a telecommunication equipment company; and he serves as the chairman of two of Gilo Ventures' portfolio companies: Stentor, a Medical Imaging software company; and Silicon Design Systems, an EDA software company.
Silicon Design Systems, Inc.'s automated routing software tools using the adaptive fine-grained routing architecture (AFRA) eliminate rather than minimize signal integrity and timing violations, helping companies achieve smaller die size, better performance and predictable design closure. For further information, please visit: http://www.SiliconDS.com
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