Pyxis Technology Raises $9.2M in New Funding

EDA startup addresses manufacturability and yield issues during IC implementation

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 26, 2006 -- Pyxis Technology, the DFM (design for manufacturability) routing company, announced today that it has raised $9.2 million in Series B funding. Formative Ventures of Menlo Park, California led the round with participation from Series A investors: Austin Ventures and CMEA Ventures. Funds will be used for continuing R&D and to begin developing sales and marketing infrastructure to support customers for the company’s DFM Routing technology.

"DFM-aware tools for next generation semiconductor designs is one strategic area of EDA that we’ve been looking very seriously at," said Brian Connors, general partner of Formative Ventures. "Pyxis is uniquely positioned with excellent technology and a stellar team that can play a significant role in providing software to design chips for deep nanometer process technology nodes."

"Formative Ventures has deep experience in EDA and semiconductor technology. While we had the good fortune to receive several term sheets, we ultimately picked a partner that believes in our vision and the oncoming inflection point in our industry," said Naeem Zafar, president and CEO of Pyxis Technology. "As manufacturing and yield issues become designdependent, Pyxis’ goal is to capitalize on the need for a true DFM routing solution."

Faysal Sohail, managing director of CMEA Ventures said, "We were very pleased to see this round oversubscribed-- indicating Pyxis’ leadership position in DFM technology."

Krishna Srinivasan of Austin Ventures added, "It is great to see a portfolio company with deep roots in Austin, TX flourish. We are pleased to have Formative Ventures as an investor."

Pyxis will be demonstrating its technology at booth 2323 at the 43rd Design Automation Conference (DAC 2006) at San Francisco’s Moscone Center from July 24 through 27, 2006. Naeem Zafar also will be participating in a panel discussion on return on investment from new DFM techniques on Thursday, July 27th from 4:30 to 6:00pm.

About Pyxis
Pyxis Technology is creating software to address the problems that chip designers and foundries face in the physical design, layout, and routing of nanometer-scale integrated circuits (ICs) and systems on a chip (SoCs). The company is focused on DFM routing technology based on a new software architecture optimized for design for manufacturability, which reduces design closure cycle time while improving overall design yield. For more information, see www.pyxistech.com. Pyxis has offices in Santa Clara, California and Austin, Texas.