Silicon Labs to double India workforce, hire 800 in next five years

US-based fabless semiconductor firm Silicon Labs plans to expand its India presence, doubling headcount to 1,600 as it bets on IoT, smart cities, and local electronics manufacturing

US-headquartered fabless semiconductor company Silicon Labs aims to grow its presence in India by doubling its workforce from the present 800 people to 1,600 over the next five years, the company’s senior vice president Manish Kothari said.

 

These individuals, including the contractual workforce, will work across the hardware, software, and applications engineering domains to cover the entire gamut of semiconductor design skill sets needed, he said during a virtual interview.

 

“India has also become a growing market, and it is being called out as a significant market by other companies in the US. The situation is different compared to the last five or seven years, when most of the customers being recognised were from China and other countries,” Kothari said.

   

Silicon Labs, founded in 1996 by Navdeep S Sooch, operates in the wireless connectivity space and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices sector, providing software and hardware solutions for smart homes and city projects, and industrial applications.

 

In India, apart from the progress in domestic assembly and manufacturing of consumer electronics, such as mobile phones, televisions, and other white goods, Silicon Labs is also betting on the expansion of capital goods and equipments, including smart meters, Kothari said.

 

“When that happens, product management, marketing, and business functions also start coming to the country. That has begun to happen in India. We are there to support those ambitions because now we have all the functions,” he said.

 

The overall growth of India as an electronics manufacturing nation will, in turn, help the country produce leaders who can connect business and customer value with the problem to be solved, Kothari said.

 

“Once you are involved in defining and co-ideating the product with customer, the process creates a new generation of leaders who understand the various use cases, value, and pricing of the product,” he said.

 

To meet the growing demand for talented employees in the semiconductor industry, Silicon Labs has also partnered with premier educational institutions across the country, including initiatives such as the Smart City Living Lab, which the company launched at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad.

 

“So, we give them the hardware and software kits, using which students are doing research and developing products that can be used in real life,” Kothari said.