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Semiconductor software design start-up X-Epic secures US$30mn in new investment amid China’s ongoing self-reliance drive

Daniel Nenni

Admin
Staff member

  • X-Epic, a rising star in China’s EDA industry, has raised an estimated US$60 million this year
  • China is trying to chip away at US dominance of the semiconductor industry, starting with EDA tools critical to designing integrated circuits



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China has been pushing for self-reliance in designing and producing semiconductors, but it is estimated to be behind by five to 10 years. Photo: Shutterstock

China has been pushing for self-reliance in designing and producing semiconductors, but it is estimated to be behind by five to 10 years. Photo: Shutterstock
X-Epic, a newcomer in critical semiconductor design software, has raised more than 200 million yuan (US$30.6 million) in a new Series A round of fundraising, the company announced on Tuesday. The company’s third round of investment this year comes at a critical time as China seeks self-reliance in the semiconductor industry amid trade restrictions on related US-origin technologies.
X-Epic, which stands for “accelerating EDA pioneer innovation centre”, makes electronic design automation (EDA) software, an important set of software tools used by chip designers, an area currently dominated by three US companies – Cadence, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics. X-Epic was founded by a former Cadence engineer in March and is based in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.
With the new funding, X-Epic has raised an estimated US$60 million this year following two other investment rounds that closed in October and November, according to statistics from PitchBook, which tracks deals in private capital markets.
“X-Epic was founded less than a year ago, and it is already receiving enormous recognition from the market and industry,” Wang Libin, founder and CEO of X-Epic, said in a statement released on the company’s official WeChat account. He added that the company is speeding up the development of “EDA 2.0” technologies for the digital economy, making designing chips easier and lowering technical barriers.

Can China catch up in electronic design automation to spur its semiconductor efforts?
9 Sep 2019
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Semiconductors is one of the most critical pieces of technology in which China lags behind the US. China is estimated to be roughly
five to 10 years
behind the cutting edge of companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), but the domestic sector is attracting heavy investment even though some analysts think an independent approach to the industry is doomed to failure.


The Chinese capital market’s appetite for the once-niche semiconductor industry has been awakened by a state-led drive towards self-reliance in so-called core technologies.

However, EDA software is just one segment of chip production. Equipment and raw wafers are also critical parts of the process, but these areas remain difficult for China to pursue independently, according to a report from US investment bank Morgan Stanley.
KNOWLEDGE
US-China Relations
Get the full picture




While EDA software helps with designing integrated circuits (IC), the production then needs to be outsourced to global foundries such as Taiwan’s TSMC. Mainland China is also seeking to boost the capabilities of domestic foundries such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), which was recently
blacklisted by the US
for alleged links to China‘s military-industrial complex.

It “tends to take years of basic research before becoming a significant player in the global semiconductor value chain,” according to the Morgan Stanley report, as it is difficult to acquire and accumulate knowledge by simply pumping in money.

With China seeking to make headway in EDA software, multiple start-ups have recently popped up in this space. The country’s EDA market is projected to reach US$3.9 billion by 2027, according to a report from Reportlinker.com.
X-Epic’s rise this year has been a particular bright spot in the industry. In November, the company launched EpicElf, a programmable solution for accelerating chip digital design verification, a major part of the chip design process.
“We highly recognise X-Epic’s research and development capabilities and the competence of its management and operations teams,” said Yue Bin, a founding partner of Gaorong Capital, which led the latest funding round. “We are looking forward to their breakthroughs in EDA technology.”

Gaorong was a new investor in this latest round, along with 5Y Capital and Shanghai Yuhan. X-Epic’s existing investors China V Fund, Hillhouse Capital, ZhenFund and Dashu Changqing also made additional investments owing to the bullish views on the company’s long-term development.
Wang, the CEO, started at Cadence as an engineer when it opened its first China office in Shenzhen in 2000. He worked there for 15 years in both engineering and sales. In 2015, Li jumped to rival firm Synopsys, where he stayed for five years before founding X-Epic, according to a report from Ijiwei.com, a media outlet that focuses on the semiconductor industry.

In August, X-Epic also hired EDA industry veterans TC Lin as chief scientist and YT Lin, who previously worked at Cadence and Synopsys, as vice-president of research and development.

 
Interesting:

"In August, X-Epic also hired EDA industry veterans TC Lin as chief scientist and YT Lin, who previously worked at Cadence and Synopsys, as vice-president of research and development."

Both very respected EDA professionals..... This is serious business here.
 
From a marketing viewpoint they should've researched their company name, because our industry already had an EPIC, with several EDA tools:
  • Nanosim - transistor-level power simulator
  • Pathmill - critical path analysis
  • Timemill - timing analysis at transistor level
Synopsys acquired EPIC, back in the day.
 
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