- The CEO has 20 years of experience in the technology industry
- iPronics focuses on the reconfigurability of the chip to expand to newer commercial applications
Spain-based programmable photonics startup, iPronics recently appointed Mark Halfman, a tech veteran, as its CEO. Mark adorns 20 years of experience in the commercialization of advanced technologies in both Silicon Valley and Boston. The startup believes that his wide-ranging expertise will help it builds on its success with early-adopter customers in its beta testing program.
It is noteworthy that Mark has been the VP of Business Development and Operations for 5 years at Qualcomm, following its acquisition of Pixtronix. In this deep-tech startup, he served as VP of Business Development and Marketing. Furthermore, the official statement noted that he has 10 years of prior programmable semiconductor experience from various roles at Xilinx.
The newly appointed commented: “iPronics has made tremendous progress in the development of its general-purpose photonic chips and design software, and I look forward to leading the company as we rapidly bring reprogrammable photonic solutions to market.”
Dr Pérez- López, the co-founder and CTO of the Valencia-headquartered company said: “We are thrilled to have Mark lead the team as we drive to commercialization and scalability. Mark has a wealth of experience in semiconductors and optics, and we look forward to the critical role he will play in helping iPronics reach the next phase of growth.”
iPronics, a spinoff of the Technical University of Valencia, was founded by Dr Daniel Pérez- López, Professor José Capmany and Iñaki Berenguer in 2019. With the aim to make the computational power of photonics affordable, it has pioneered the field of programmable photonics. It claims to have developed the first general-purpose photonic processor capable of programming high-speed light signals on-chip with unprecedented flexibility. iPronics provide a cost-effective solution as its processors share a common hardware platform that is reconfigurable by software. Recently, it collected €3.7 million in seed funding led by Amadeus Capital Partners.
