SliceX gets $15M, names CEO

-- SliceX today announced that it has secured $15 million in a Series B funding round led by Crosslink Capital with participation from existing investors Global Catalyst Partners and BlueRun Ventures. SliceX will use the investment to develop a high performance analog mixed signal product line. The Company’s products will target a range of industry segments from communications infrastructure and video imaging, to industrial equipment, automotive, and medical applications. The company has raised $25 million to date.

The company also announced that Dr. Yusuf Haque, a semiconductor pioneer with over 22 years experience at Maxim Integrated Products, a known leader in analog semiconductor products, has joined as CEO.

“The keys to the kingdom lie in providing solutions for high performance analog mixed signal products,” said Dr. Haque, chief executive officer, SliceX. “We have developed an extremely differentiated approach which has the potential to change the state of the art and provide a basis for building a long term sustainable analog mixed signal company. We are focused on hiring and retaining the best people who share in our vision to collaborate on developing a broad product line that is market-driven and customer-focused.”

Dr. Haque joins the board of directors, which is chaired by Michael Hackworth, founder, former CEO and current chairman of Cirrus Logic. Mr. Hackworth led the fabless semiconductor business model at Cirrus Logic. Under his stewardship, Cirrus became the fastest semiconductor company to achieve $1B in revenue. Crosslink Venture Partner Lou DiNardo, the former president and COO at Intersil Corporation, CEO of Xicor (which was acquired by Intersil), and former VP and general manager of the Mixed Signal Business Unit at Linear Technology Corporation, joins Global Catalyst Partners’ Vijay Parikh and BlueRun Ventures’ Sujit Banerjee on the board.

“Analog semiconductors have proven to be the most durable and profitable growth segments of the semiconductor industry,” said Lou DiNardo from Crosslink Capital. “SliceX has assembled a seasoned analog semiconductor team to build a sustainable high-margin, high-growth business and game-changing product offering that is materially differentiated from competitors with respect to performance and features.”

Before joining SliceX, Dr. Haque was the general manager of Maxim Integrated Products Signal Processing and Data Converter Business Unit for 8 years. Leveraging a strong technology background, Dr. Haque established Maxim as one of the top three data converter suppliers. He spent an additional 14 years at Maxim in design engineering and management where he personally designed over 70 products and managed the release of over 350 products. He holds more than 30 patents. Prior to Maxim, Dr. Haque spent eight years at AMI in the design and strategic product marketing for all communications products.

About SliceX

SliceX is a privately held company and is backed by leading venture capital firms Global Catalyst Partners, BlueRun Ventures and Crosslink Capital. SliceX is focused on providing solutions for high performance analog mixed signal applications which allow realization of excellent gross margins and long product life times.