Hero Electronix arm acquires UK-based chip design service provider

Hero Electronix on Tuesday said its group company Tessolve has acquired UK-based chip design services provider Test & Verification Solutions (T&VS) for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition will bolster Tessolve's chip design capabilities, and take its overall employee strength to over 2,000 engineers, Hero Electronix CEO Nikhil Rajpal told PTI.

He added that the transaction will firmly cement Tessolve's position as an end-to-end provider of semiconductor engineering services, and help it reach the USD 100 million revenue by March 2021.

"The addition of T&VS talent and technologies will enable us to provide more integrated and optimised chip design solutions. Design verification and validation is an important phase in the design and production cycle of every semiconductor product and accelerates taking products to market," he said.

Founded in 2008 by Mike Bartley, T&VS is a provider of Design Verificationsolutions to semiconductor companies and offerings solutions for Design for Test (DFT) and Embedded Softwarewith its over 400-people team across multiple markets including the UK, India (Chennai), Japan, the US and Singapore.

While Rajpal declined to comment on the deal size, he said T&VS has annual revenues of about USD 10 million.

"Tessolve has been growing at a strong pace and we expect to close this fiscal at about USD 70 million. With this acquisition and the strong momentum, we are hopeful of crossing the USD 100 million milestone by March 2021," he said.

T&VS is the fifth acquisition by Tessolve in the past four years.

Tessolve acquired TES DST in July 2016, Spectrum Integrated and Test lab business of Lynxemi Pte in August 2017, and Analog design business of Analog Semiconductors in November 2017.

"These strategic acquisitions have put Tessolve in a unique position to offer a comprehensive spectrum of services to semiconductor companies. The latest acquisition adds a strong team and capability depth in a critical area like chip design and expands Tessolve's presence into the UK and Japan markets," he added.

Rajpal said this is the largest acquisition by Tessolve till date and a critical addition in building Tessolve into the largest semiconductor engineering services player in the world.

"We are extremely delighted and proud to be part of the Hero Electronix and Tessolve family. Tessolve has a global footprint with deep relationships and the most extensive capabilities in semiconductor engineering. It is a unique opportunity for the entire team at T&VS to integrate and aspire for larger opportunities both individually and collectively as a team," Mike Bartley, CEO and Founder of T&VS, said.