US product engineering firm, Aricent has announced the acquisition of Bengaluru based design services company SmartPlay Technologies.
The acquisition immediately establishes Aricent as the number 1 product engineering services firm in the semiconductor market, with more than 2,000 combined experts and relationships with 17 of the top 20 semiconductor companies.
With the help of this acquisition, Aricent has expanded its services and expertise to help the world’s top innovators accelerate development of software, hardware and network products for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Pradeep Vajram, co-founder and CEO of SmartPlay, will take on a new role as president of Aricent’s Semiconductor Business Unit. He reports to Frank Kern, Aricent’s chief executive officer.
Kern said, “SmartPlay has built a very impressive business over the last seven years, and we’re excited to welcome them to the Aricent family. Our combined expertise in silicon, software and connectivity will help propel product development for our clients in some of the most exciting technology areas – working across automotive, consumer electronics, industrial automation, semiconductor and other industries.”
“Joining Aricent is a great cultural fit for the SmartPlay team, given our shared belief in high-quality, high-value product engineering services. We can now deliver a more powerful proposition to clients across industries that need smart silicon and embedded software to accelerate their R&D initiatives,” said Vajram.
SmartPlay serves 80 per cent of the top 20 semiconductor companies and received the Mentor Graphics Leadership Award for Best Electronics System Design Start-up. It was also ranked as a top employer in the 2015 Great Places to Work survey in India.
Vajram brings 25 years of semiconductor industry experience to Aricent, having executed design and development of semiconductor products at all levels of responsibility. Prior to co-founding SmartPlay, Vajram was vice president of engineering at Qualcomm.
