Sasken Technologies, which recently announced its results for the quarter ended September, reported consolidated revenue of ₹135.03 crores at a 9.5 per cent sequential growth. The company, which acquired Sasken Silicon six months ago, is increasing its focus on silicon design, said Rajiv C. Mody, Chairperson, MD & CEO of Sasken Technologies Ltd.
“We continue our journey on product engineering and digital services. Primarily, we address the embedded systems product engineering area and all digital practices linked to areas mattering in the world of embedded systems. That’s our single-minded focus. We address six verticals, including semiconductors, consumer electronics, SATCOM, networks, automotive, and industrial. In the last six months, we added a new dimension, which is in silicon design,” Mody said.
In Q4FY24, the company invested in Anups Silicon Services Private limited (ASSPL), adding to its repertoire both IP’s and Engineering capabilities to deliver chip design solutions, IP-led design, and foundry services.
According to a regulatory filing on BSE, earlier this year, Sasken invested ₹33.20 crores in ASSPL to acquire 60 per cent equity share capital, following which it became a subsidiary of the company.
Its acquisition of Sasken Silicon six months ago is on a growth trajectory, the company said in its quarterly earnings release. The teams are getting integrated into Sasken and are becoming integral to expanding its semi-con offerings across verticals.
In the quarter, the team helped win projects not only in silicon design but also on the service side. “This strategic acquisition is helping us expand our offerings and positions us to provide cutting-edge solutions for both existing and future clients,” the company said.
Mody continued, “I feel good about Sasken Silicon because silicon design, foundry services, and IP-led designs are the future. From a strategic perspective, semiconductor design, is a core and critical to any vertical now. During COVID, it was identified that a disruption in semiconductors can significantly impact the ability to service the end market, so one needs to secure the supply chain as much as possible. A second shift is system companies are starting to build their silicon. The value of silicon is on software. Sustaining support for a product category that demands long-term support is a challenge for a standalone silicon company.”
He added that, for example, if a semiconductor company needs to support the software for a car that typically lasts for about 5-6 years, it’s a cost affair. “The complexities of building things into it is driving changes in the marketplace.”
The CEO noted, “Analog will be a key driver because all sensors are analog. Lot of computes may move into analog. That is the other shift. All put together, we are quite bullish on our semiconductor investment. Supporting customers on software for longer period on silicon is a great place and that is our focus area; that’s what Anups is systematically building and driving.”
Mody said that the company is also positive about Sasken Japan. “Historically, we have been in Japan, and have had amazing customer relationships. The challenge was trying to solve the problem of Japanese customers sitting here. And then we realised we needed to create a presence that is Japan-focused, Japan market-focused, and Japanese people-focused. Japan is a big enough market; we have built goodwill over there, working with them for many years, and have customers. And towards that, we invested in early this year and are starting to see traction.”
During the last quarter, the company saw wins in new areas, including SDV platform development for a semiconductor giant, telematics porting on new chipsets for a Japan-based Tier-1, and ADAS development and testing for an EU Tier-1.
Geographically, North America is the biggest region for Sasken with 37 per cent of its revenue share coming from there, followed by EMEA at 27 per cent, India at 26 per cent, and APAC at 10 per cent, which grew sequentially from last quarter’s 7 per cent.
Consolidated PAT for Q2FY25 was at ₹12.29 crores, down by 30.5 per cent from Q1. Consolidated Revenues grew by 31.7 per cent YoY from Q2FY24.
Consolidated EBIT for the quarter was ₹0.91 crores, down 58.7 per cent sequentially over the previous quarter and down 92.9 per cent YoY from Q2FY24.