The challenges
Straatum was established by Dr Mike Hopkins, an academic from Dublin City University, and Ciaran O’Morain, a research colleague, almost seven years ago. The pair developed a system for detecting and classifying faults during the manufacturing of silicon chips without stopping the production line — a critical advantage in an industry where improving yields, reducing costs and increasing productivity are paramount.
Advertisement
The firm’s big challenge was to convince the manufacturers that its solution was best. When Enterprise Network visited in June 2003, the company identified its key issues as deciding between opening a sales office or using a distributor in Asia, whether or not to look for a strategic partner and continuing to invest to dominate its market space.
What the experts said
Tom Comerford, of Bank of Ireland, said that as times were tough for semiconductor manufacturers, the company should seek rapid growth to establish a strong market awareness of its cost-saving product.
Stephen McGivern, of BDO Simpson Xavier, advised the firm to get its product to market as quickly as possible to stay ahead of the competition.
Kevin Sherry, of Enterprise Ireland, added that the company needed to keep investing in research and development to retain its technological advantage.
Advertisement
Action taken
Brendan Coyle, the company’s chairman, took over as chief executive in October 2003 and Hopkins returned to academia. O’Morain remains as vice-president for sales. Coyle comes from a strong management background in the technology sector and says his role was to “oversee the commercialisation of the product”.
The company changed its name from Scientific Systems to Straatum (the name of its groundbreaking product) and in December 2004 it successfully raised $5.6m in funding from three leading venture capital funds, ACT, Vision Capital and Intel Capital.
The company has opted not to seek a strategic partner.
Advertisement
Conclusion
“2005 is the year when the product really gets rolled out to markets in America, Asia and Europe,” said Coyle.
Advertisement
“Securing the funding in December was central to this while the calibre of our investors is an important endorsement of what the company is doing.”
The product roll-out is timely as changes in semiconductor manufacturing (involving a move to more complex chips with more precise geometry) are making fault detection even more critical.
“Market demand and our technology are converging so our timing is excellent,” Coyle said.