AnSem celebrates its 10th anniversary during an academic session: “Innovation brewed in Leuven”

Leuven, 9 October 2008, AnSem, the Leuven based analog and mixed signal fabless design house today celebrated its 10th anniversary.  For this occasion customers and partners were invited to an academic session on the theme “Innovation brewed in Leuven”.  The speakers, being prominent politicians, scientists and leaders of multinational companies, discussed the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Flemish region in Belgium.

Patricia Ceysens, the Flemish Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship, Science, Innovation and Foreign Commerce, highlighted the importance of innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalization for the Flemish economy.  She sketched AnSem as a company that combines these three economical drivers resulting in an important contribution to the economical strength of Flanders.

Professor Debackere from the Catholic University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven) elaborated on factors that make a university spin-off a real commercial success.  He outlined the role of the Gemma Frisius Fund. This fund not only makes financial investments but also coaches young entrepreneurs that found spin-off’s of Leuven’s university and the IMEC institute. AnSem is a living example of a successful young company that spun out from the university.

Emeritus Professor Sansen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AnSem, underlined the importance of analog IC design in a growing digital world.  He stated that there is an increasing demand for analog IC development worldwide.  According to Sansen, Europe, and Leuven in particular, is very well positioned to play a leading role in analog IC design.

Marc Degrauwe, CEO of EM Microeletronic Marin, Switzerland, explained why his company partners with  AnSem for the development of some of their new products.  The most important reasons for EM Microelectronic Marin to subcontract innovation is to acquire specific external expertise with high added value for EM Microelectronic Marin.  This is of prime importance for EM Microelectronic Marin to be able to keep on bringing competitive products on the market.

Finally, AnSem’s CEO Stefan Gogaert outlined the history of AnSem, growing in 10 years from a spin-off of the K.U.Leuven and IMEC to a mature company of almost 40 employees, two locations, a solid international customer base and an excellent reputation in the industry.  This success was enabled by AnSem’s customers, who keep on using AnSem for its unique analog design expertise. Furthermore, it results from clear management and last but not least from a strongly customer minded team of employees that constantly develops innovative solutions for AnSem’s customers.

All the speakers agreed on the fact that innovation is one of the most important success factors of Flanders, and that AnSem brings an important contribution in this context.

10 years innovation by AnSem in a nutshell

AnSem was founded in 1998 by Stefan Gogaert and Jan Crols.  In the last 10 years, the company has grown from two engineers to an innovative analog IC design house with two locations, nearly 40 employees and with a global customer base.  The analog IC design expertise of AnSem can be found in wireless applications, ultra low power applications, high speed data communications and in sensor interfaces chips.  AnSem’s customers are semiconductor companies and innovative companies active in the electronic world.

AnSem press contact:

Dr. Bas Dorren
Sales & Marketing Manager

AnSem NV
Esperantolaan 9
3001 Heverlee
Phone: +32 16 38 65 00
E-mail: business@ansem.com