SEMICONDUCTOR company Silicon Box has raised US$200 million in a Series B round, bringing its valuation to over US$1 billion less than three years after its founding, the startup said on Monday (Jan 8).

Investors in the round included Singapore-based family office Praesidium Capital, US hedge fund Maverick Capital and growth investor BRV Capital. (*see amendment note)

Silicon Box’s three founders participated in the round, as did India’s Tata Electronics and the venture arms of Taiwanese semiconductor group UMC, Japanese electronics group TDK and US semiconductor company Lam Research.

Silicon Box was founded in 2021 by the founders of Nasdaq-listed chipmaker Marvell, husband-wife duo Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai, along with current chief executive Han Byung Joon.

Han was previously the chief executive and chairman of semiconductor assembly and test provider Stats ChipPac.

Silicon Box focuses on chiplet technology, which combines multiple smaller chips within a single package. Chiplets have been increasingly adopted by companies such as Apple and chipmaker AMD for their greater flexibility, performance, as well as efficiency.

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Traditional chip designs are made up of transistors linked together by electronic circuits on a single chip. Silicon Box’s approach allows companies to put their own chips together with more existing integrated circuits as if they were Lego blocks.

The company said this addresses a key bottleneck in chip production. Last July, it launched a US$2 billion 750,000 square-foot facility in Tampines, which has been in mass production for early customers since October. The new funds raised will be used to expand production.

*Amendment note: A previous version of the article called Praesidium Capital a UK-based asset manager. Praesidium is a Singapore-based family office; the article has been amended to reflect that.