UK semiconductor startup Chipletti has just announced that they had been awarded a grant from Innovate UK for a new collaborative project with Imec, one of the world’s leading semiconductor research institutes.

In this 5-minute video, Chipletti Cofounder, Catriona Wright, explains how the project came about and the potential significance for Chipletti.

In this two-minute video clip, Mark expounds on funding your startup, the role of incubators and accelerators, what makes a good founder, and working with a potential customer.

Once you’ve watched the clip, you can listen to the full BritChips audio podcast, Switching Light with Light, on Substack or by searching for ‘BritChips’ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

All BritChips video clips are also available on the YouTube BritChips channel.

Mark Rushworth was introduced to PhD research scientist Mike Pearcey through a family connection. As Mark describes it, ‘Mike had an idea - a really, really clever idea’ to develop an all-optical computer processor.

Using his own experience as the founder of a medtech startup, coupled with many years experience in commercial roles in blue chip multinational companies, Mark went into business with Mike to launch Finchetto, as CEO and CTO respectively.

In this podcast, Mark takes us through Finchetto’s journey, explaining the rationale behind the strategy they are following to bring the product to market, and offering common sense advice to founders about the commercial realities of launching a deep tech startup.

You can watch a two-minute excerpt of this podcast in the accompanying BritChips Extra Slice video clip available on Substack and on the YouTube BritChips channel.

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Just search for ‘BritChips’.

Analog design engineer Aravind Venugopolan had been trying hard to commercialise his post-doctoral research at Edinburgh University where he was developing new applications for single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). But with little success.

A fortuitous encounter with Shahida Imani, the commercially-minded former CEO at laser developer startup Chromacity, led Aravind to invite her to lead the spin out of the startup that became Singular Photonics, where she is now CEO and he CTO.

In this BritChips podcast, Shahida explains how refocusing the business on the core IP led to the development of a range of novel optical imaging sensors that are already enjoying traction in the market.

To be honest, I could have just as easily subtitled this podcast, ‘the art of fundraising for tech startups’, as Shahida also explains the risks associated with taking early-stage equity funding without understanding the potential implications for future funding rounds. You can watch a snippet in the accompanying BritChips Extra Slice video clip.

This podcast should be required listening for any aspiring founder looking to do a university spin out, or indeed any tech entrepreneur looking to raise early-stage funding.

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Just search for ‘BritChips’.

“I probably would have appreciated knowing that a little bit earlier in the journey”.

What Martin MacDonald would have appreciated knowing a little bit earlier was how difficult it was going to be to raise serious money (as he put it) for weeteq, the Glasgow-based microcontroller design startup for which he is COO.

Now, Martin did not come into weeteq blind.

He had previously spent time as a mentor at STAC, the Glasgow-based deep tech accelerator, which was where he met hardware design engineer and entrepreneur, Taner Dosluoglu, founder, and now CEO, of the startup which was to become weeteq.

As COO, one of Martin’s many challenges is to raise funding to commercialise Ultra Edge, weeteq’s IP and product line for its innovative microcontroller for power electronics applications.

And therein lay the challenge.

You can listen to Martin’s story on this podcast.

When I asked Tanya Mangoma, founder and CEO of in-memory computing startup, HyperCIM, what she would do differently if she had the chance to do it all over again, she simply replied, “Cry less!”

Tanya had shed a lot of tears over her two previous startup attempts. But even though the going was (and still is) tough with HyperCIM, she has received a lot of support from the UK government-sponsored ChipStart programme.

In this podcast, Tanya speaks frankly about the trials and tribulations she faced in her journey to become a deep-tech entrepreneur and why she would definitely do it all over again.

You can also see a video out-take from this podcast in the BritChips Extra Slice video post here on Substack.

There can be fewer galling experiences for a tech entrepreneur than when your customers tell you that your technology is so key to their products that they have decided to develop their own IP in house, so thank you very much and cheerio!

This, as you can imagine, was a pivotal moment for self-styled photonics visionary and entrepreneur, Josh Silverstone.

Josh had put heart and soul into his photonics controller startup, and this was turning into a nice little business.

So he needed a Plan B.

Rather than continuing to focus on the increasingly commoditising market for photonics controllers, Josh channelled his team’s skills and experience into developing special-purpose photonics-based systems on a chip.

In this BritChips podcast, Josh explains how a chance meeting with some bankers at a wedding eventually led to the development of an electro-mechanical arcade machine-like device named Babbage to validate Hartley’s design for a photonic system on a chip.

This is one for those of you who can tell your photons from your neurons.

Oh - and even palaeontology gets a mention!

PS You can see Babbage with all lights flashing in the preview video, ‘Meet Babbage’ here on Substack!

PPS Sorry, no cuddly toy, though.

This is not a funfair arcade machine!It’s an optoelectronic neural network test bed.It’s called Babbage.It does indeed look as if it could have been one of the father of computing’s weirder inventions.In fact, it was created by Josh Silverstone, founder and CEO of photonics startup, Hartley Ultrafast.And Josh brought it along to Microelectronics UK at Excel London to show the world!I’ll let Josh tell you more in this 3.5-minute clip.You can hear more about Josh (and Babbage) in next week’s BritChips podcast. It’s a great story!PS Alas there was no coin slot so I didn’t win a cuddly toy.PPS All BritChips podcasts are also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Go tell your pals!

Imagine you are the founder of a startup that has created a software platform to design photonic chips.

So how do you check it does the job?

Obviously, you design a photonic chip using the platform and see if it turns out OK.

What could be simpler?

Quite a lot, actually, as Dr James Lee was to find out.

James is a cofounder and CEO of integrated photonics design startup, Wave Photonics.

Wave Photonics was one of the ten startups selected to participate in the the first cohort of the UK Government-sponsored ChipStart programme, managed by Silicon Catalyst UK.

James’ journey from university researcher to startup CEO is testimony to the persistence and dogged determination you need to be a tech entrepreneur.

So if you really want to understand what it takes to launch a chip design startup, then listen to Shining a Light on Wave Photonics.

It’s enlightening!