Brite Semiconductor Secures Series C Round of Finance from Norwest Venture Partners, Gobi Partners and China-based Foundry SMIC

$8 million investment to expand Brite’s R&D and support global market expansion

SHANGHAI, China and PALO ALTO, Calif. – March 3, 2014 – Brite Semiconductor, an emerging ASIC design services firm headquartered in Shanghai, China, announced today it has raised $8 million in a Series C round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Gobi Partners, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC, NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981).

Founded in Shanghai in 2008, Brite Semiconductor has increasingly expanded its capabilities and now offers a comprehensive lineup of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) design services from design specification through packaged and final tested ICs. Committed to processor-based SoC (system on chips) designs, Brite Semiconductor provides front- and back-end design services supported by an expanding IP catalog targeting increasingly complex mobile and consumer applications. Building on its success in China’s rapidly growing ASIC sector, Brite is expanding into the U.S. and other lucrative global markets by demonstrating enhanced economic value to customers while still demonstrating profitability in 2014.

“Building on our success in the China market, Brite Semiconductor is expanding into the U.S. to address its growth segments requiring increasing performance in complex ASIC designs” said Dr. Charlie Zhi, President and CEO of Brite Semiconductor. “To better serve our customers worldwide, we are expanding our IP and platform portfolio with a wider range of functions such as higher speed interfaces. At the same time we are adding employees to expand products and improve support. This latest round of funding allows Brite to enhance its R&D capabilities in order to globally serve exciting new cost-sensitive, mega-markets like IoT while further exploring opportunities up the value chain into the cloud.”

Key to Brite Semiconductor’s success has been its close relationship with SMIC, the largest semiconductor foundry in China also headquartered in Shanghai. As a dedicated partner to SMIC for design services worldwide, Brite Semiconductor offers customers key benefits. “We offer in-depth knowledge and experience for designing to SMIC’s roadmap,” said Dr. Zhi. “This gives us a unique ability to work closely with our clients in order to minimize risk through the entire design process while creating market-optimized solutions for each customer.”

“Brite Semiconductor’s innovative approach to ASIC design and its ability to manage the complete SoC development and manufacturing cycle offers system houses and fabless chip companies the opportunity to focus on their own specific application and market expertise. Brite’s customers can then focus on bringing differentiated products to market quickly, with better economics, and with high confidence and minimized risk,” said Promod Haque, Senior Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “Backing Brite Semiconductor’s successful expansion in capabilities and global market penetration is good for Brite’s customers and therefore good for us.”

“Design service companies in China are responding to the growing domestic and worldwide demand for SoCs,” said Thomas G. Tsao, Managing Partner at Gobi Partners. “Through the company’s innovative services, Brite Semiconductor’s SoC designs are bringing electronic consumer products to life that serve the world’s markets. We look forward to Brite Semiconductor’s continued success as they expand further into the global ASIC sector.”