Pyxis Technology, Inc. Adds KT Venture Group, LLC to Investors
Extends Series-B Financing with $5.25M from Austin Ventures, CMEA Ventures,
Formative Ventures and KT Venture Group
AUSTIN, Texas, February 12, 2008 -- Pyxis Technology, Inc., an electronic
design automation (EDA) company offering high-performance integrated
circuit (IC) auto-routing software, has raised $5.25 million in an extension
to its Series-B financing. This most recent round featured the addition
of strategic investor KT Venture Group, LLC, the investment partner of
KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC). Existing investors Austin Ventures,
CMEA Ventures and Formative Ventures also participated in this round.
The new funds will be used to accelerate deployment of the Pyxis NexusRoute
high-performance, yield-aware auto-router announced in September of 2007
(see the prior press release).
"Pyxis Technology has a strong value proposition for their
customers", said Stefano Concina, general partner at KT Venture Group.
"Their correct-by-construction approach and their ability to tune the
IC routing to enhance design-for-manufacturing (DFM) are in alignment with
KLA-Tencor’s strategy to address design-dependent manufacturing,
inspection and yield issues.
"
"Since the introduction of NexusRoute in Q4 2007, we have seen a
steady increase in sales activity from key semiconductor suppliers who are
aggressively moving to 45nm process technologies", said Brian Connors,
general partner of Formative Ventures. "Pyxis technology is being
validated on some of the most challenging designs in the industry and we
look forward to Pyxis using this new financing to capitalize and expand
upon their momentum."
"We continue to show customers that our correct-by-construction
architecture can deliver vastly cleaner designs at 45nm with greatly improved
router throughput, faster circuit performance, lower power and higher predicted
yield", said Phil Bishop, CEO of Pyxis. "Our ability to seamlessly
blend NexusRoute into the major EDA flows has made it easy for our
customers to quickly bring up the tool and be productive on designs that
other routers are struggling with."
"We are pleased to have the KT Venture Group join the existing
investors in Pyxis", said Krishna Srinivasan, partner at Austin Ventures.
"KLA-Tencor’s strong connection into the manufacturing world will
be required by Pyxis’ customers for 45nm and sub-45nm technologies."
"The Pyxis NexusRoute software is showing extremely good results
at 45nm where other routers are failing", said Faysal Sohail, managing
director of CMEA Ventures. "Combining superior routability, runtime,
timing, power reduction and DFM makes NexusRoute the router of choice
for technologies at 45nm and below."
About Pyxis
Pyxis Technology delivers software and services 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). Pyxis NexusRoute is a high performance, yield-driven
auto-router, architected for process technologies of 65nm and below.
Based on open, industry standard interfaces and easily integrated into
existing design flows, NexusRoute simultaneously optimizes design
performance, power and yield. Using NexusRoute, customers have
seen as much as a 4X improvement in design closure cycle time with faster
circuit performance, lower power and up to a 10% increase in predicted
yield. Pyxis Professional Services help customers maximize IC yield and
manufacturability by leveraging DFM and yield enhancement approaches
within their design environments. Pyxis has offices in Austin, Texas.
For more information, see
www.pyxistech.com
About KT Venture Group
Formed in 2000, KT Venture Group, LLC, the investment partner of
KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) and is chartered with exploring
and investing in early-stage, start-up companies in the electronics
industry. KT Venture Group targets industries that complement
KLA-Tencor’s line of products and services, including the
semiconductor, reticle, wafer manufacturing, data storage and electronic
design automation (EDA) markets. In addition, the KT Venture Group seeks
to pursue other emerging electronics markets in which KLA-Tencor’s
technology and expertise can provide unique value. Further information
on KT Venture Group can be found at:
www.KTVentureGroup.com
# # #
Media Contacts:
For Pyxis Technology, Inc.
Linda Marchant , Cayenne Communication
919-451-0776, linda.marchant
cayennecom.com
For KT Venture Group, LLC
Meggan Powers, KT Venture Group LLC
408-875-8733, meggan.powerskla-tencor.com
