18:00 – 18:40
VC & Investment Activities in Power Electronics Fireside Chat
Moderator
Rouzbeh Borhani
Plug and Play Tech Center
Rouzbeh is the Founder and Head of the Semiconductor practice at Plug and Play, the largest corporate innovation platform in the world and one of the most active early-stage investors globally. He collaborates closely with entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leaders, and investors, focusing on the semiconductor industry value chain.
Previously, Rouzbeh served as the Country Retail Management Director in the Consumer Electronics sector.
Rouzbeh holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Disruptive Innovation, along with a Bachelor of Science in Mechatronics Engineering. He is currently a PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His passion lies at the intersection of technology and business.
Plug and Play Tech Center
Company Profile
Plug and Play is the ultimate innovation platform. Our mission is to build the world’s leading innovation platform and make innovation open to anyone, anywhere. We do this by connecting entrepreneurs, corporations, and investors worldwide.
Over the past 15 years, we have brought together 35,000+ startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across 20+ industries.
We are active in 50+ locations globally, including the U.S., China, France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, and more.
Together with our partners, we are creating a unique ecosystem designed to facilitate meaningful introductions, invest in startups, and bring together key stakeholders.
The industries we focus on include Agtech, Animal Health, Brand & Retail, Crypto & Digital Assets, Energy, Enterprise, Fintech, Food & Beverage, Health, Insurtech, IoT, Maritime, Media & Ad, Mobility, New Materials & Packaging, Real Estate & Construction, Smart Cities, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Travel & Hospitality.
Panelist
Yvonne Lutsch, Ph.D.
Lam Capital
Yvonne joined Lam Capital in October 2024 as Investment Director, bringing over 7 years of venture capital experience from Bosch Ventures USA, where she led investments in deep tech fields like AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, sensors, and industrial technology. She also has 13+ years of operational experience at Bosch, having served in leadership roles across technology scouting, business development, engineering, and manufacturing in both mobility as well as consumer electronics. Yvonne holds a PhD in Applied Physics from University of Tuebingen and a Diploma in Experimental Physics from University of Siegen, both Germany.
Lam Capital
Company Profile
Lam Capital invests in innovative companies that are addressing some of today’s most challenging, high-impact problems. From semiconductor subsystems to AI chips and Industry 4.0 technologies, we invest in and partner with startups that are disrupting their respective industries.
Panelist
Katherine He, Ph.D.
TDK Ventures
Katherine He is an Investment Analyst at TDK Ventures. She supports the research and landscape building in energy-storage materials and battery technologies and leads technology scouting on startups in the energy sector. She is a published author with 12 peer-reviewed publications, two patents, and one book chapter.
Prior to joining TDK Ventures, she was a battery researcher and engineer with eight years of experience developing high-energy density lithium-ion batteries and energy-storage technologies. With a Ph.D. in materials science and a deep understanding of technology, she was also trained by government and national lab programs in commercializing lab innovations. Additionally, she had leadership roles in deep tech and entrepreneur communities. She is a founding member of the largest global battery community, “Volta Foundation,” which includes more than 20,000 battery professionals. She also co-founded BatteryBits and BatteryStreet, and serves as an executive member of MIT CEO, actively bridging the academia, industry, and venture worlds to accelerate the cleantech revolution.
Katherine enjoys reading, hiking, working out, and having hot pot together with family and friends. She also practices Chinese traditional dancing, and spends time serving battery communities.
TDK Ventures
Company Profile
TDK Ventures Inc. invests in startups to bolster innovation in materials science, energy/power and related areas typically underrepresented in venture capital portfolios. Established in 2019 as a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK
Corporation, the corporate venture company’s vision is to propel the digital and energy transformations of segments such as robotics and industrial, next-generation transportation, mixed reality and the wider IoT/IIoT markets. TDK Ventures will co-invest and support promising portfolio companies by providing technical expertise and access to global markets where TDK operates. For more information, please visit www.tdk-ventures.com.
Panelist
Rajesh Ramanujam
Applied Ventures
With undergraduate (IIT Madras) and graduate (Purdue University) degrees in mechanical engineering, Rajesh Ramanujam is a technologist at heart. He joined Applied Ventures in early 2019 and is focused on investing in a range of verticals including additive manufacturing and semiconductors.
His first job out of graduate school was at Applied Materials, within the core products group where he developed temperature measurement hardware and software control technologies for Rapid Thermal Processing of silicon wafers. He has a varied set of experiences in all aspects of technology development and commercialization (product development, program management, product marketing et. al.) through his time in the product groups.
He subsequently entered technology investment banking (at Cowen & Company and Barclays Capital) when he was involved in advising private and public companies on capital raising and M&A in semiconductors, software and internet verticals.
Prior to rejoining Applied Ventures, Rajesh was an early member of Lam Capital (corporate venture arm of Lam Research Corporation) where he helped to establish the venture investment group and executed Lam’s investments in life science companies and funds.
He spends most of his time outside of work with his family and aspires to spend more time enjoying the sun, the snow and the incredible variety of food that Northern California offers.
Applied Ventures
Company Profile
Applied Ventures, LLC, is the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., (NASDAQ: AMAT). Applied Materials is the global leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. For more than a decade, Applied Ventures has invested in startups that are pioneering innovations in smartphones, augmented and virtual reality, AI, driverless cars, big data, life sciences, 3D printing, robotics, cleantech, and advanced materials. Applied Ventures is stage agnostic and invests up to $100M per year globally. We have invested in over 90 companies across 18 countries.
Panelist
Pete Rodriguez
Silicon Catalyst
Pete Rodriguez has 40 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry. He is on the steering committee of the American Semiconductor Innovation Coalition (ASIC) and has co-led the startup team. In 2022, Pete served on the semiconductor working group of the President’s council of advisors in science and technology (PCAST). Pete is currently on the advisory boards of Certus Semiconductor, Harvest Management Partners and Blue Horizons-AI and an observer on the board of Owl Autonomous Imaging.
Pete was formerly VP & GM of Interface and Power at NXP Semiconductors. Prior to NXP, Pete was CEO of Exar Corporation (NASDAQ), CEO of Xpedion Design Systems (acquired by Agilent), Chief Marketing Officer at Virage Logic (NASDAQ), Major Account Manager at LSI Logic and Program Manager at Aerojet Electronic Systems. He spent twelve years as an entrepreneur with three different startups and has raised over $30 Million in venture capital. He retired from the US Naval Reserves with the rank of Commander. Pete has served on public, UK LTD, private, advisory and non-profit boards of directors.
He is a graduate in strategy and policy of the Naval War College. Pete has an MBA from Pepperdine University, an MSEE from Cal Poly Pomona where he was inducted in the engineering hall of fame, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Silicon Catalyst
Company Profile
Silicon Catalyst is the only incubator + accelerator focused on the Global Semiconductor Industry including Chips, Chiplets, Materials, IP and Silicon fabrication-based Photonics, MEMS, Sensors, Life Science and Quantum.
More than 1,200 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted over 100 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization.
The incubator + accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their company’s novel technology solutions. Over the past nine years, the Silicon Catalyst model has been proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors.
The Silicon Catalyst Angels was established in July 2019 as a separate organization to provide access to seed and Series A funding for Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies.
SiliconCatalyst.UK, a subsidiary of Silicon Catalyst, was selected by the UK government to manage ChipStart UK, an early-stage semiconductor incubator funded by the UK government.
In February of 2024, Silicon Catalyst Ventures (SCV) was launched to fund early-stage startups accepted into the incubator’s two-year program. SCV has already made eleven investments in Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Companies.
More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.com, www.siliconcatalystangels.com, www.siliconcatalyst.uk, and Silicon Catalyst Ventures www.sicatalystvc.com.
