Technology Watch is sponsored by RS Components ot so long ago, getting a business venture off the ground involved one Appealing to the crowd Ncourse of action: grovelling to a bank manager in the hopes they would offer a loan or second mortgage. unding is an important part of the technology world. If you Things have changed. About 20 years ago, the don’t have access to cash, your idea is unlikely to get to world of private equity discovered technology. Fmarket very quickly – if at all. During the 1990s, investing in technology funds While the issue of funding is generally seen to be a start up began to look like a one-way bet. Although related problem, it’s something that applies to organisations of all individual companies would often hit the wall sizes. All companies need access to cash to help them through before providing a return to investors, there the daily grind of running a business. When there are payments would be enough high-profile, incredibly to be made, but cash from invoices hasn’t arrived, something is profitable, flotations to maintain high returns for needed to tide you over. While many companies have a good the funds overall. relationship with their bank, some companies will need to Web browser pioneer Netscape’s initial employ other approaches. public offering (IPO) focused public attention on the world of venture capital and its potential But what if you’ve decided to start your own business? Where is returns as the company’s stock price rocketed on the money coming from? With the current state of the economy, the NASDAQ exchange in the mid-1990s. That going to your bank for a loan isn’t likely to be productive. Unless the market value of the company would you have a bit of cash put by, you’re going to need to find plummet to Earth not long after was someone to back you – so called ‘angels’ can do a good job here. unimportant – early-stage investors made a One different approach which is proving successful – at least for handsome profit. And earlier IPOs of companies the moment – is crowdfunding. Essentially, you post an outline of such as Altera and Xilinx showed that venture your project on a website and offer people a range of funding need not be isolated to internet involvement for the money they put your way. A £50 investment software. Electronics companies were attracting in your idea could be considered to be a pre production order, investors on the back of the internet revolution. for example. And the more that’s invested, the more the investor Then the dot-com bubble burst. Although gets. internet stocks such as Facebook have shown that IPOs can attract public attention even now, While it’s not quite the ‘Wild West’ out there, investors need to electronics companies have failed to regain their be wary of what they put their money into and companies need earlier popularity. Without high-profile, high-profit to make sure they can deliver what they promise. exits, venture funding into electronics has all but What’s the benefit for the electronics industry, though? The dried up. From hundreds of companies a year at answer is that crowdfunding is helping companies to get a range the peak of the dot-com bubble, just a handful of diverse products into the market that might not have are now funded each year. otherwise made it. And crowdfunding is also a good marketing filter – if your idea New approaches replace VC funding isn’t any good, it won’t get backed. Although venture funding has ebbed, other options have appeared. Some companies are using consultancy to help bankroll longer-term projects, sometimes in combination with smaller quantities of early-stage investment from the few venture funds that remain active or, more often, Glenn Jarrett, head of electronics business angels – private investors with an marketing, RS Components interest in the technology sector. Some organisations have attempted to fill in With operations in 32 countries and 17 warehouses, the gaps. EMAnetworks grew out of Cre8 RS Components stocks 550,000 products from 2500 leading Ventures, launched by Mentor Graphics to suppliers. It serves 1.6 million customers worldwide, shipping provide access to otherwise expensive EDA more than 46,000 parcels on the day the orders are received. tools to start-ups through a revenue-sharing rswww.com tel: 08457 201201 model. EMAnetworks goes further by finding customers for early-stage start-ups, who can 18 23 April 2013 www.newelectronics.co.uk Technology Watch Crowdfunding A different audience Chris Edwards takes a look at new ways of raising the money to get your idea off the ground. provide funding on a risk-sharing basis, as well as development of the Eve platform for its wireless ideas and potential customers. On Kickstarter, reducing their outgoings by taking on some home automation gateway, Ciseco turned to people pledge money in return for different operational support and helping to connect crowdfunding. Ciseco opted to base its home- levels of participation in the venture – such as developers with sources of IP from academia automation gateway around the Pi because, for advance access to a product or a simply a higher- and other companies. its compute power, the Pi works out as incredibly specification product. Another option being applied by a wider cheap, especially for products that are not likely For example, Sheffield-based Pimoroni is range of business ventures is crowdfunding. In to ship in high volume. building a collection of mini-arcade consoles effect, it opens up the use of customer funding to Ciseco’s choice of Pi also helped to raise the around the Pi. People who pledged around £120 a much broader base. project’s profile and to solicit advance funding. get a smaller version; those offering closer to The flurry of interest around the Raspberry Pi The company used Kickstarter, one of a number £200 get the full version of the Picade when it’s board has thrust the possibility of crowdfunding of websites that have sprung up over the past released this spring. electronics projects into the spotlight. To finance decade to act as a link between companies with Some projects find it easier to raise funds www.newelectronics.co.uk 23 April 2013 19 Technology Watch is sponsored by RS Components than others. Ciseco had to do a lot of publicity in the tune of $1.5million from Bittware, which addition to listing on Kickstarter to get to the helped produce the first implementation of the target amount. It took seven business weeks of architecture, a 16-core device build on a 65nm drumming up support through forums and other process. online vehicles in what CTO Miles Hodkinson The second version of the Adapteva called a ‘relentless effort’. processor, aimed at the 28nm process node, By the deadline, Ciseco raised 140% of its expands the number of cores on a single die to £15,000 target and has now completed the 64 and was developed in cooperation with shipping of the Eve systems funded by the GlobalFoundries. As part of the deal, the Kickstarter programme. Although raising money Adapteva architecture can be licensed by through Kickstarter was hard work, the company GlobalFoundries’ other customers for use in their is likely to seek a second round on Kickstarter own ICs. Through deals like this, the foundry with a more modular design. intends to widen the amount of IP that it can A common technique for raising money to a offer to companies that want to run products deadline is to have a sliding scale of packages through its fabs. with lower prices and better benefits for early To reduce development costs, Adapteva used adopters. For example, a $20 pledge for a DSP multiproject wafer runs – which share the costs card built on an Arduino Shield offered by of a mask set, which would otherwise be Connecticut based Douglas Lyon, developer and prohibitively expensive at 28nm – to fab the chairman of the computer engineering devices. Although the use of a small part of the GoFundMe, Indiegogo and Microventures, among department at Fairfield University, was designed mask wastes much of the wafer, the much lower others. to give the first crowdfunders for his project the startup costs make it possible for companies on In principle, crowdfunding dates back a lot rights to one of the first assembled boards. Once limited budgets to obtain silicon. If volumes ramp further. It had its beginnings in the form of the first 12 slots were gone, backers could significantly, Adapteva expects to switch to a community lending. Jonathan Swift set up a choose the second package – again for an custom mask set. scheme in the 18th Century that funnelled loans assembled board – but with a price tag of $25. In financed by a wide base of concerned investors turn, that was replaced by a $35 assembled- Kickstarter funding for chip development to poor Irish families. Charity appeals for board package. To try to expand its business, Adapteva decided artworks and statues represent the first forays Even chip design companies have started to to try to raise $3m through crowdfunding, also into the kind of model that organisations such as try the model. Adapteva is a parallel-processor using Kickstarter. The company fell significantly Kickstarter support. The Statute of Liberty in company founded by former Analog Devices short of its target, but still raised close to $1m New York was only completed after an appeal by TigerSharc engineer Andreas Olofsson. Initially, from prospective customers who can expect to publisher Joseph Pulitzer to the American public.