CEO interview: RANsemi’s Claydon says geopolitics drove change
Peter Claydon, president of Picocom Technology Ltd. (Bristol, England), has told eeNews Europe that he and three colleagues co-founded RANsemi Ltd. in November 2023 partly because of geopolitics.
Picocom Technology, a radio access network chip and software company founded in 2018, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Picocom (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. based in Hangzhou, China. While this was not a problem in the early years of the company it has become a barrier to sales in more and more countries as US-China tension has ramped, Claydon said. He confirmed that Picocom is loss-making at present.
In 2023, a team comprising Claydon as CEO, Martin Lysejko, Douglas Pulley and William Robbins decided to form RANsemi.
RANsemi operates in the same field as Picocom Technology – semiconductors for radio access networks – and is essentially a continuation of Picocom, but it is UK based and funded and therefore free to sell products into telecommunications networks around the world. The move leaves Picocom (Hangzhou) able to continue selling 5G RAN baseband semiconductors and boards in China and enables RANsemi to sell elsewhere and continue its development journey.
All four RANsemi shareholders are active in the company Claydon said; Lysejko as chief systems architect; Pulley as CTO and Robbins as vice president of engineering. The transition is being made with the co-operation of Picocom’s parent company, he added.
Claydon said that when Picocom was founded in 2018 it was difficult to raise local investment for UK technology-based startups but money was available from China. Almost from the beginning Picocom Technology was a subsidiary of Picocom (Hangzhou, China).
“There’s a lot more interest in semiconductors in the west now and we can get funding in the UK,” said Claydon.
“RANsemi will continue to make and sell Picocom products but from here on it will develop new products independently,” Claydon said. “It’s a mutually-agreed strategy. Picocom Technology could not be really successful while Chinese-owned,” he added. Claydon also confirmed one of the technical directions for the startup. Claydon said that artificial intelligence is being applied to radio access networks and therefore provides a new opportunity for RANsemi.
Claydon continues as president of Picocom Technology Ltd. while details of the transfer of assets and any necessary licensing terms are worked out. However, RANsemi is up and running with offices in the same building as Picocom in Bristol and the startup is preparing its own patent applications.
When asked about investment in RANsemi, Claydon said: “We have some investment already and we are engaged with potential investors.” He added that RANsemi is not a “cold startup” and does not need extensive funds because it will have existing sales revenue that it will obtain from Picocom Technology. “We have enough money to be self-supporting,” he said.
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