Renesas to Acquire Steradian to Expand Its Reach in the Radar Market

TOKYO, Japan, August 31, 2022 ― Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723, “Renesas”), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Steradian Semiconductors Private Limited (“Steradian”), a fabless semiconductor company based in Bengaluru, India, that provides 4D imaging radar solutions, in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. The acquisition of Steradian's radar technology will enable Renesas to extend its reach in the radar market and boost its automotive and industrial sensing solution offerings.

With the advancements of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) in the automotive market, automotive sensor fusion demand is growing to allow precise and accurate object detection of vehicles’ surroundings by combining data from multiple sensors, such as cameras, radar and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). Radar in particular accurately detects objects over long distances, day or night, even during harsh weather or other adverse environmental conditions. For these reasons, radar is considered an essential sensing technology for ADAS, and the number of radar sensors installed in vehicles is expected to triple over the next five years (Note). To respond to such growth potential, Renesas is expanding its automotive product portfolio with Steradian’s radar technology.

“Radar is an indispensable technology for ADAS, which uses a complex combination of various sensors,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, President and CEO of Renesas. “The addition of Steradian's superb radar technology and engineering talent will allow us to extend our leadership in the automotive segments. We will also leverage their technology for industrial applications to drive our mid- to long-term business growth in both segments.”

"Renesas' industry-leading portfolio of embedded solutions and broad customer base serve as an ideal foundation to maximize Steradian’s radar technology worldwide,” said Gireesh Rajendran, CEO of Steradian. “By working together with the Renesas team, we will continue to develop innovative radar solutions that deliver the high performance, small footprint and low power consumption that our customers desire.”  

Founded in 2016 as a start-up company, Steradian has extensive expertise in radar technology. Operating in the 76-81 GHz band, Steradian’s powerful 4D radar transceivers offer a high level of integration in a small form factor and high power efficiency. Renesas will leverage Steradian's design assets and expertise to develop automotive radar products, with plans to start sample shipments by the end of 2022. The company aims to develop complete automotive radar solutions that combine ADAS SoCs (System-on-Chips) for processing radar signals, power management ICs (PMICs), and timing products together with software for object recognition. Collectively, these solutions will simplify the design of automotive radar systems and contribute to faster product development.

Renesas and Steradian have been collaborating since 2018, mainly in industrial applications. Steradian's radar technology is expected to be adopted in home security systems such as surveillance, traffic monitoring for people, cars and motorcycles, HMI (Human-Machine Interface) systems such as gesture recognition and docking systems in airport terminals. Steradian provides targeted solutions for these applications by offering transceiver ICs, turnkey modules that include antennas, and software stacks for object recognition.

For the last several years, Renesas has been expanding its connectivity and analog products to complement its core processing products for embedded systems. With the acquisition of Steradian, Renesas will bring together the best possible devices and software to meet the growing demand for sensor technology solutions for automotive and industrial customers, to make their design work easier.

(Note) Source: Strategy Analytics Inc., "Imaging RADAR Coming to Automotive,” December 2021.

(Remarks) All names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) empowers a safer, smarter and more sustainable future where technology helps make our lives easier. A leading global provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines our expertise in embedded processing, analog, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These Winning Combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications, enabling billions of connected, intelligent devices that enhance the way people work and live. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This announcement may contain certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Renesas and/or Steradian and/or the combined group following completion of the Acquisition and certain plans and objectives of Renesas with respect thereto. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate to historical or current facts.  Forward-looking statements also often use words such as “anticipate,” “target,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” ‘‘forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “goal,” “believe,” “hope,” “aims,” “continue,” “could,” “project,” “should,” “will” or other words of similar meaning. These statements are based on assumptions and assessments made by Renesas and/or Steradian (as applicable) in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, future developments and other factors they believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty, because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and the factors described in the context of such forward-looking statements in this announcement could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although it is believed that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to be correct and you are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as at the date of this announcement.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect expected results and are based on certain key assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in any forward-looking statements. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement. Neither Renesas nor Steradian undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

There are several factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements are changes in the global, political, economic, business and competitive environments, market and regulatory forces, future exchange and interest rates, changes in tax rates and future business combinations or dispositions. If any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any one or more of the assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from those expected, estimated or projected. Such forward looking statements should therefore be construed in the light of such factors.

No member of the Renesas group or Steradian nor any of their respective associates, directors, officers, employers or advisers, provides any representation, assurance or guarantee that the occurrence of the events expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this announcement will actually occur.

Except as expressly provided in this announcement, no forward-looking or other statements have been reviewed by the auditors of the Renesas group or Steradian. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to any member of the Renesas group or Steradian, or any of their respective associates, directors, officers, employers or advisers, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above.