South: Altitude Partners exits Moortec Semiconductor to Synopsys

Altitude Partners, the regional private equity fund, has completed an exit from Moortec Semiconductor, to Synopsys Inc, the US-based EDA and semiconductor IP vendor, generating a return of 12.6 x.

Established in 2005, with offices in Plymouth, Bristol and Poland, Moortec is a world leader in the design of embedded sensor and monitoring technologies used within advanced node silicon chip devices.

The company has grown rapidly following Altitude’s investment in 2016 and now licenses its IP solutions to many leading technology companies, allowing power, performance and device assessment to be enhanced.

Moortec’s in-chip sensing subsystems can be found in a wide range of commercial applications such as data centre, automotive and 5G communications where the highest performance at the most cutting-edge silicon technologies is required.

The acquisition by Synopsys Inc will allow the business to grow further as it becomes part of their recently announced Silicon Lifecycle Management Platform (‘SLM’), a data-analytics-driven platform that enables critical improvement in performance, reliability, functional safety and security.

Stephen Crosher,  CEO of Moortec, commented: “Altitude’s consistent advice, strategic support, introductions and financial backing have been absolutely essential in allowing us to scale our business rapidly, develop our world leading offering and deliver compelling IP products for our customers.”

Simon White, partner at Altitude, commented: “Moortec has been a fascinating investment. Stephen and the whole team at Moortec have been an absolute pleasure to work with over the last four years, bringing ambition, drive and real focus to this highly technical area and they are proof of the quality of world leading technology solutions being developed in the UK.”

This is the final exit from Altitude’s first fund and represents an overall investment return of over 4.5 times the original investments.

The shareholders were advised by Acuity Advisors (Andy Lister, Brian Snell, Matthew Byatt) and legal support for the transaction was provided by Osborne Clarke (Greg Leyshon, Robert Pook, Magnus Williams, James Robertson).