Singapore-based semiconductor startup Silicon Box announced that it successfully raised $200 million (SGD 266 million) in a Series B funding round on January 8. With this investment, the startup’s valuation has now exceeded $1 billion, achieving unicorn status less than three years after its establishment.
Key investors in this funding round include Praesidium Capital, a British asset manager, Maverick Capital, a U.S. hedge fund, and BRV Capital, a growth investor. The three founders of Silicon Box, along with Tata Electronics from India, and the venture arms of UMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor group, TDK, a Japanese electronics group, and Lam Research, a U.S. semiconductor company, also participated in the round.
Founded in 2021 by the husband-wife duo Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai, who are also the founders of Nasdaq-listed chipmaker Marvell, Silicon Box’s current CEO is Han Byung Joon, who previously served as the CEO and chairman of semiconductor assembly and test provider Stats ChipPac.
Silicon Box specializes in chiplet technology, a method that involves combining multiple smaller chips within a single package. Chiplets have gained popularity for their increased flexibility, performance, and efficiency, with companies like Apple and AMD adopting them. Silicon Box’s approach enables companies to assemble their chips alongside existing integrated circuits, akin to building with Lego blocks, addressing a crucial bottleneck in chip production.
In July 2023, Silicon Box inaugurated a $2 billion, 750,000 square-foot facility in Tampines, which has been engaged in mass production for early customers since October. The newly raised funds will be utilized to further expand production capabilities.
