VC Funding for EDA Start-Ups: Pain or Gain? A VC’s perspective

Business Session 2

Seed, Care and Harvest - Value Focused EDA

Abstract

Andreas Demleitner, Senior Investment Manager Bay Tech Venture Capital

Europe holds a strong position in EDA research, in particular in System-level and mixed signal EDA. National, European and industrially funded research at universities and institutes leads to promising approaches meeting in particular the needs of the European system industry. In many cases the resulting technologies and prototype-tools are the key assets of EDA start-up companies.

We will present an example of such a start-up company founded in 2002 in Oldenburg: ChipVision Design Systems AG. In 2003 the company has successfully closed a venture capital financing round with a syndicate of two renowned venture capital firms. This funding enables to further invest in product development, management and growth.

The presentation will show the VCs’ experience and view on this deal. It will explain the concepts of venture capital, decision making processes, and typical general conditions, shed light on the expectations a VC has towards the company’s management and founders and add a critical view about the upsides and downsides that accompany a Venture Capital financing.

Curriculum Vitae

Andreas Demleitner holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Karlsruhe University, Germany. Between 1990 and 2001 he worked for Siemens Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies in different functions in Germany, South Africa and California. Positions included responsibility for finance and operations for a business unit in the US and Investment Partner of Infineon Ventures, the Venture Capital arm of Infineon Technologies. In 2001, he joined MergeOptics, a German Fiber Optics startup as co-founder and CFO. Since September 2002, he is responsible for investments in semiconductors and related technologies at BayTech Venture Capital, a renowned Venture Capital Firm based in Munich, Germany. Andreas Demleitner is member of the supervisory board of Xignal Technologies and ChipVision Design Systems.