Silicon Catalyst
AcceleratorBrisbane · Pre-Seed–Series A · 41 people tracked
Investment thesis
Silicon Catalyst operates as an incubator and accelerator dedicated to the global semiconductor industry, giving startups access to industry veterans, semiconductor partners, advisors, EDA tools, IP, design services, prototyping pathways and commercialisation support. Through its Australian subsidiary and the ChipStart AU program in Queensland, backed by the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund managed by Queensland Investment Corporation, it supports companies across semiconductors, quantum, photonics, advanced materials, Medtech and AI-enabled hardware. The program aims to reduce the cost and complexity of development while connecting founders with global customers, strategic partnerships and investors. Its worldwide ecosystem has reviewed more than 1,500 semiconductor startups and admitted over 150 into its programs.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 16, 2026.
Team · 41 people
from the firm's website & public directoriesWhat they invest in
from 52 of 68 portfolio companiesHardware ×36Semiconductors ×34Deep Tech ×33AI & Machine Learning ×18IoT ×8Cybersecurity ×5Biotech ×4Cleantech ×4
HQs:United States×16United Kingdom×2Australia×1Switzerland×1
Portfolio companies · 68 tracked
alumni founders can tell you what the program is really likeDiamond Quanta is commercializing the Adamantine Platform, an engineered-diamond materials and interface platform providing coatings, substrates, and active devices for semiconductor, power electronics, optics/photonics, and quantum applications.
New MaterialsQuantum ComputingSemiconductorsMountain View, US
4K-MEMS SA develops miniaturized broadband infrared (NIR/SWIR) light sources and MEMS thermal emitter chips that can be embedded in compact devices, manufactured at wafer scale for mass production.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
The company develops ALPro technology for electrical characterization of semiconductor layers at atomic-scale depth resolution, aimed at supporting process development, modeling, and manufacturing control.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
AiNEKKO builds composable silicon for edge AI inference, working across RISC-V manycore compute, MRAM-based memory (iRAM), and an open software stack.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSemiconductors
Tanya DadashevaDouglas Smith(Executive team (former Broadcom IP architect))
Applied Brain Research develops state space models and edge AI hardware for real-time voice and sensor processing on devices without cloud connectivity.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechHardware
Beam Shaping develops a phased array antenna that electromagnetically shapes and steers its beam to automatically scan and lock onto the strongest signal without moving parts.
Deep TechHardwareIoT
Black Sol Nano develops EM Cloak™, a carbon-nanomaterial metamaterial for electromagnetic interference (EMI) absorption that traps EM waves and dissipates them as heat without requiring electrical grounding.
Deep TechHardwareNew Materials
Brain-CA Technologies builds an energy-efficient AI learning system based on Cellular Automata and Teleomorphic Computing, replacing heavy neural-network computation with a patented "Estimator" design that removes the Von Neumann bottleneck.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSemiconductorsCincinnati, US
Steven A. Brunker(Executive Officer, Director)Gerard E. Felix(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardJonathan Phillips(Director)
Cambridge Terahertz commercializes terahertz sensor technology based on MIT research, delivering compact on-chip radar systems that use non-ionizing radio waves to create 3D images analyzed by AI.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDefense TechHardwareCambridge, GB
Nathan Monroe(Executive Officer, Director)in
BoardCarolyne LaSala Holtorf(Director)Anand Dixit(Director)in
Cortisonic develops AI hardware based on reservoir computing using arrays of interconnected nanomechanical oscillators (phononic circuits) that process information through vibration and sound.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechHardware
CrossFire develops chiplet-to-chiplet interconnect technology for AI infrastructure, including Bridgelet interconnects, Direct Chiplet Input/Output (DCIO), and OmniDie integration that replace costly silicon interposers.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductorsSt. Paul, US
Kevin A. Atkinson(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)
Dover Microsystems develops CoreGuard, silicon IP that integrates with RISC processor architectures to monitor executed instructions and block network-based cyberattacks, software vulnerabilities, and safety violations.
CybersecurityHardwareIoTSemiconductorsWaltham, US
Jonathan B. Rosenberg(Executive Officer, Director)Jothy Rosenberg(Founder & Executive Chairman)inJohn MacPhee(Executive Officer)Greg Sullivan(Chief Scientist (former))
BoardVivjan Myrto(Director)inKaigham Gabriel(Director)
Edgewater Wireless designs AI-driven Wi-Fi silicon using its Spectrum Slicing technology, which enables multiple concurrent channels from a single radio to increase capacity, lower latency, and improve reliability.
HardwareIoTSemiconductors
Eridan builds a fully digital radio unit with its proprietary Ultra-Clean Signal technology for Private 5G networks, aimed at reducing power consumption and operating costs while improving coverage and spectral efficiency.
Deep TechHardwareIoT
Espretech develops the Nvisilink family of chipsets and sensors that convert data into chaotic waveforms routed beneath the visible frequency spectrum of a network, providing hardware-level data security, connectivity, and device scalability.
CybersecurityHardwareSemiconductors
HeptLab develops solid-state 3D sensors designed to operate in harsh environments and degraded visual conditions, offering adaptive sensing hardware.
Deep TechHardwareIoT
Implantable biomonitoring technology using near-field RF energy transfer and photonic sensing for real-time biomarker measurement in animal health across companion animals, service animals, and livestock.
Jmem Tek designs ASIC solutions, hardware security IP, and IC design services for quantum-resilient cybersecurity, including NIST-certified post-quantum cryptography and hardware-anchored identity authentication.
CybersecurityQuantum ComputingSemiconductors
Lelantos develops gas sensing technology, including its Xone gas sensor chip.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
Lemurian Labs builds hardware-agnostic software infrastructure for AI, aiming to make AI compute portable, faster, and more affordable across heterogeneous hardware like CPUs and GPUs.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Jay Dawani(Founder & CEO)in
Mentium Technologies designs ultra-low-power, radiation-tolerant Edge AI co-processors and an accompanying SDK for size-, weight-, and power-constrained systems such as satellites, spacecraft, drones, robotics, bodycams, and security devices.
AI & Machine LearningSemiconductorsSpace TechSanta Barbara, US
Konstantin Likharev(Co-founder)Dimitri Strukov(Co-founder)Mirko Prezioso(CEO)Farnood Merrikh Bayat(CTO)Paul Daniel(CFO)
BoardJohn Bowers(Director)
MoRF develops a silicon-compatible photonics platform using a proprietary III-V material stack that enables field-driven electro-optic modulation with high bandwidth and low energy use, integrated through standard CMOS silicon manufacturing.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
Neurophos develops photonic AI accelerator chips (the OPU) that use photonic tensor cores to deliver high compute throughput at low power draw, aiming to compress a full GPU rack into the size and power of a single GPU.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSemiconductorsAustin, US
Patrick Bowen(Executive Officer, Director)Hod Finkelstein(Executive Officer)Preston Woo(Executive Officer)
BoardChristopher Alliegro(Director)Nathan Kundtz(Director)
Niobium builds purpose-built silicon (ASIC/FPGA) and an encrypted cloud platform based on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), allowing data to be processed without being exposed.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingCybersecurityDeep TechSemiconductorsDayton, US
Jorge Myszne(Executive Officer)Kevin Yoder(President & CEO)Matthew Farrell(Executive Officer)Georgios Dimou(Executive Officer)Lucas Duncan(Executive Officer)David Archer(Executive Officer, Director)
Oculi builds a Sensing and Processing Unit (SPU) that integrates AI vision at the pixel level, running vision processing on-chip to transmit only the information needed to detect what is in a scene without cloud dependency.
AI & Machine LearningHardwareSemiconductors
Phinomics is a cancer drug discovery platform that captures extrachromosomal circular DNA (the "Circulome") at high resolution from matched tumor and normal patient samples, integrating it with DNA, RNA, epigenetics, and proteomics into a multi-omic knowledge graph.
AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep Tech
Phosio develops UV-curable metal oxide precursors that enable low-temperature deposition for optical and electronic components used in smart glasses, semiconductors, and display technologies.
Advanced ManufacturingHardwareNew MaterialsSemiconductorsCorvallis, US
Omid Sadeghi(Chief Executive Officer)
BoardBryn Pilney(Director)Andrew Greenville(Director)Joe O'Keeffe(Director)
Power Down Semiconductor develops LPP (Low Power Processing) technology that reduces dynamic switching power in compute chips by reshaping CMOS switching to reuse energy, while preserving clock frequency and performance.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
Probius develops Quantum Electrochemical Spectroscopy (QES), a label- and reagent-free electrochemical sensing technology that detects and quantifies thousands of analytes—proteins, metabolites, and cells—from microliter-scale biological samples in about 30 minutes.
AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep TechHardwareHealthtechSemiconductorsFremont, US
Chaitanya Gupta(Executive Officer, Director)inEmmanuel Quevy(Co-founder & CEO)in
QPT is a cleantech company that has developed and patented a more energy-efficient method of controlling electrical motors, reducing their energy use by up to 10%.
CleantechEnergyHardware
Q-Pixel develops polychromatic RGB microLED technology, covering material growth, device fabrication, and display assembly, and operates as a fabless microLED display innovator.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
RAAAM Technologies develops GCRAM, an on-chip memory technology positioned as a drop-in replacement for SRAM that offers up to 50% area reduction and up to 10X lower power consumption while remaining compatible with standard CMOS fabrication.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
Rune Energy develops solar power systems using an integrated approach spanning PV arrays, DC power delivery, integration architecture, and software and controls.
CleantechEnergyHardwarePalo Alto, US
Spin-out from the Universities of Oxford and Munster developing a novel semiconductor chip.
SensTek Diagnostics builds a palm-sized, optics-free molecular diagnostic platform that uses a solid-state electrochemical sensor and isothermal (pH-LAMP) amplification to detect and quantify pathogens from samples as small as 10 µL.
AgTechBiotechMedical Devices
SigmaSense builds a semiconductor and software sensing platform that converts raw signals into high-precision, real-time data for applications including battery health monitoring (Onboard EIS), touch and touchless human interfaces, and industrial systems.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductorsAustin, US
Richard Seger(Executive Officer, Director)Edward R. Prince(Executive Officer)Stephen Sedaker(Executive Officer)Michael Shawn Gray(Executive Officer, Director)Dan Van Ostrand(Executive Officer)
BoardLiting Cai(Director)
Novel silicon carbide lateral power MOSFET technology for high-voltage, fast-switching power conversion, enabling simplified manufacturing and integrated power systems-on-chip.
Silvertech develops a patented silicon carbide (SiC) lateral power MOSFET designed to deliver high-voltage performance at lower manufacturing cost than GaN devices and to allow on-chip integration compatible with silicon fabs.
EnergyHardwareSemiconductors
Dr Michael Harvey(CEO)Dr Richard Harris(CTO)
BoardDr Rowan Gilmore(Chairman)
Simplex Micro designs a configurable RISC-V vector processor IP platform optimized for vector processing and edge AI, positioned as a lower-power alternative to GPU/TPU-based systems.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSemiconductors
Spark develops LE-UWB, a wireless technology that delivers ultra-low latency and high throughput for applications including gaming, audio, industrial IoT, and medical devices.
Deep TechHardwareIoT
SpiNNcloud Systems builds neuromorphic, brain-inspired computing hardware based on its SpiNNaker2 Arm-based AI processors, aimed at running AI workloads at supercomputer scale with higher energy efficiency than GPUs.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSemiconductors
Advanced carbon materials platform converting agricultural biomass waste into graphitic, hard, and glassy carbon materials for batteries, coatings, packaging, filtration, and thermal management.
Sweet Atoms develops advanced carbon materials using patent-pending processes that convert agricultural, food, and beverage waste biomass into high-performance materials as an alternative to petroleum-derived feedstocks.
Circular EconomyCleantechNew Materials
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesNeurophos · techcrunch.com · Feb 14, 2026
Lemurian Labs · finsmes.com · Dec 4, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Silicon Catalyst invest at?
- Silicon Catalyst invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Silicon Catalyst focus on?
- Silicon Catalyst focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Consumer, Crypto & Web3, Deep Tech, Fintech, Hardware, Medical Devices, New Materials, Quantum Computing, SaaS, Semiconductors.
- Where is Silicon Catalyst located?
- Silicon Catalyst is headquartered in Brisbane, AU.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamSean Redmond, Silicon Catalyst On Launch Of MSCC In Malta
EE Times · Sean Redmond