The News

Sofinnova Partners annonces investment in Accent

17/07/2006

Paris,  17 July 2006– Sofinnova Partners has led a €10.6 million financing in Accent, an Italian spin off from ST Microelectronics and Cadence Design Systems, specialized in semiconductor IP licensing and microelectronic products realization services. The Italian Private Equity firm CAPE Natexis and a group of business angels also participated in the financing round. Cadence will still remain a substantial minority shareholder in the company after this financing.

Accent benefited from the depth of experience and design skills of the two founding companies in order  to build a complete offering from idea to chip design, production as well as for supply chain management. Accent offers its clients a turnkey solution for microchip implementation, from strategic and complex architecture design to supply chain management for volume production, all summed up by company’s motto, “highway to silicon.”
Founded in 1993, the company is one of the leading microelectronics design houses in the world, and today can boast a wide range of expertise in many different market sectors: from telecommunications to multimedia, from automotive to biomedical, from home automation to industrial controls.

Accent has handled over 20 full system designs (from architecture to design) and more than 250 ASIC tape-outs from RTL/netlist to factory hand-off in 10 years of operation, with an impressive 98% first time working silicon track record..

Moreover, thanks to its different design platforms, from ARM based to sensor based and to its expertise in SoC and embedded processors, Accent is the company of reference  to help companies having no expertise in the semiconductor environment to manage the realization of complex ICs.

“We believe Accent has a major role to play as an intermediary between semiconductor fabs and clients, as ICs increasingly appear in everyday objects, from toys to cars, from healthcare to security, from tooling to home automation. This new need for chips is creating a gigantic need for all kinds of companies to source ICs,” says Jean Schmitt, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners. “Companies are looking for one-stop shopping suppliers. Accent has developed the right platforms to address these large emerging markets. In addition, we were attracted by Accent’s highly skilled management team, led by Massimo Vanzi, CEO, which has impressive credentials in design and product realization. Finally, Sofinnova Partners has enjoyed a good working relationship in the past with STMicroelectronics, including the lead of the carve out in March 2004 of UPEK, Inc., STMicroelectronics fingerprint business.”

"Marco Vismara, CEO of Cape Natexis, says,  "The presence of a team of financial investors will give Accent’s management team the financial support  and the skills they need to develop their project, based on continuous innovation and increased presence at an international level."

Massimo Vanzi, CEO of Accent, added, “We are pleased to receive this financing round, which will allow us to scale up our sales team by opening new offices in UK, US and Israel and to start design operations in cost-effective areas such as Eastern Europe, China, Singapore or India.”

For further information, please contact:

Madeleine Resener
Media Relations
Sofinnova Partners
Tel: +33 (0) 53 05 41 00 / +33 (0) 6 20 41 39 82
mresener@sofinnova.fr

About Sofinnova Partners
Founded in Paris in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is one of Europe's leading independent venture capital firms. With €900 million under management, Sofinnova Partners invests in start-ups and early-stage companies in information technology and life sciences. Its investment strategy consists of investing early in teams and projects with high potential, most often acting as lead or co-lead investor. Sofinnova Partners also benefits from a long-established relationship with its sister company in San Francisco, Sofinnova Ventures. Sofinnova Partners’ teams consist of 12 professionals who bring market insight and technical expertise to portfolio companies.