By Greg Gao

(JW Insights) June 7 -- Rapid Flex(芯璐科技), a Shanghai-based FPGA developer, recently announced the completion of a seed round of financing of more than RMB30 million($4.2 million) led by Chengwei Capital.

The funding will primarily be used for its FPGA architecture verification and chip tape-out. By securing substantial financial support, it can now focus on its upcoming fundraising plans, providing additional resources to drive research and development efforts. The company has initiated plans for a new funding round, aiming to raise over RMB100 million($14 million).

Rapid Flex was founded in 2021 and successfully completed its first FPGA architecture verification and chip tape-out in the third quarter of the following year. By the end of 2022, they commenced the second round of programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) architecture verification and chip tape-out, according to Chengwei Capital.

The startup is a business-driven PSoC developer. It is a local IC-design house in domain-specific embedded FPGAs (eFPGA) for diverse target applications, including industrial, consumer, communications, and automotive, said the company.