CoFluent Design Closes $2.6 Million in its First Round of Funding

CoFluent Design, an Electronic System Level (ESL) company focused on delivering state-of-the-art software solutions for architecture exploration and performance analysis, recently announced that it has raised $2.6 million in Series A funding to expand its marketing and sales worldwide, as well as boost its research and development. Led by Emertec Gestion, a French Venture Capitalist specializing in microelectronics, the investors in this A round also included BNP Paribas Private Equity (BNPP PE), the Private Equity arm of BNP Paribas; and UFG Private Equity, Private Equity asset management company of the French consortium Groupe UFG.

Initially funded in 2003 by Stphane Leclercq, entrepreneur and electronics professional; Vincent Perrier, embedded systems expert; and Jean-Paul Calvez, Professor at the University of Nantes, France, and creator of the technology; CoFluent Design develops and markets CoFluent Studio™, an ESL modeling and simulation toolset.  The company’s breakthrough technology helps electronic device and chip manufacturers bridge the gap between the specification of a system and its implementation.

“We were impressed by CoFluent’s ability to win world-class reference customers in their early years with a unique product offering that fills the gap in existing design flows while easily integrating into current processes and practices,” said Jean-Philippe Gendre, investment director of Emertec Gestion.  “Given that CoFluent’s solutions are fully-aligned with today’s corporate design flows, we feel confident that the company will be able to drive growth worldwide by leveraging these initial design wins.”

“By providing executable specifications, CoFluent allows large corporations to facilitate highly effective communications between development teams scattered across the company and around the globe, providing system, hardware and software engineers a common vector to share their views,” stated Guillaume Lebrun, investment director of BNPP PE.  “We are excited about the prospects of our investment in CoFluent and the promising ESL market.”

“CoFluent enables manufacturers to reduce the time-to-market of their innovative products,” stated Olivier Denigot, investment director of UFG PE.  “We are confident that the company will continue to replicate its successes and quickly proliferate its ESL solutions worldwide.”

“This strong show of investor confidence is a major milestone in CoFluent’s history,” said Stphane Leclercq, CEO of CoFluent Design.  “Partnering with such major players in the high-tech venture capital arena is a direct reflection of the achievements and potential of CoFluent Design and its patented technology.  Our investors’ experiences will be of tremendous help in our plan to become a leading provider of ESL solutions.”

CoFluent Studio is the culmination of 20 years of research by Professor Calvez on an electronic system co-design methodology. Current version 2.0 of CoFluent Studio delivers support for SystemC, and represents more than 40 person-years of R&D.  Despite CoFluent’s short history, the software and methodology delivers the highest industry standard for stability and reliability.

Prior to the funding, CoFluent Design secured seed money from European Union funds for supporting its R&D program, and successfully signed corporate-level software licensing agreements with a world-leading mobile terminal manufacturer and world-leading semiconductor platform provider for mobile terminals.

For more information, please visit: www.cofluentdesign.com