News: Microelectronics
20 December 2023
Navitas holds 2023 Investor Day at official opening of new HQ
Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA held an Opening Ceremony and 2023 Investor Day at its new headquarters in Torrance, CA on 12 December.
Torrance mayor George Chen and Dustin McDonald from the Office of the Governor of California joined Navitas’ CEO & co-founder Gene Sheridan to speak and cut the ribbon, officially opening the new headquarters. About 100 Navitas staff are employed in Torrance for all aspects of GaN and SiC design, applications, test, characterization and quality plus finance, marketing and human resources. Further team growth is planned for 2024, including a $20m investment to add SiC epi-growth capability for strategic manufacturing expansion.
The investor meeting began with Sheridan’s recap on a year of significant growth for Navitas, with a doubling of revenue, a $92m capital raise, four major new technology platforms and an update on Navitas’ mission to ‘Electrify Our World’. He then outlined a $1.3tr electrification market opportunity as GaN and SiC enable and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to a carbon-neutral, full-electrified world.
Co-founder & COO/CTO Dan Kinzer then introduced technology platforms including Gen-4 GaNSense half-bridges for motor drive and mobile fast chargers, GaNSafe – claimed to be the world’s most protected GaN powertrain, GaNSense Control, and a new bi-directional GaN power IC platform with up to 9x smaller chip size than legacy silicon MOSFETs or IGBTs. Sid Sundaresan, senior VP for the GeneSiC product line, added more detail on the Gen-3 Fast SiC platform.
In May, Navitas announced a qualified customer pipeline of $760m, across mobile, solar/ESS, EV/eMobility, data-center and appliance/industrial markets. At the Investor Day, David Carroll, senior VP worldwide sales, announced that the pipeline had increased by 65% to $1.25bn, including the top ten mobile OEMs and a majority of solar inverter makers. Investors also heard from Navitas customers, including Rick Liu of Accopower for EVs, Belkin’s Steve Malony for mobile, Philipp Guo of VREMT for EVs, Adam Weissman of Anker for mobile, and Harron Inam of DG Matrix for EV roadside charging.
Navitas’ chief financial officer Ron Shelton presented more detail on the financial results, with increased gross margin, and over $170m is cash and no debt, plus a long-term target to grow 6–10x more than the market, with 50%+ gross margins.
Navitas executives will next be at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, 9–11 January, then the Needham Growth Conference, New York, on 17 January.
Navitas ranked top 50 in Forbes’ 2024 Most Successful Small Companies
Navitas’ revenue grows 22% sequentially in Q3
Navitas launches GaNSafe power platform
Navitas announces full exercise of underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares
