Mentions of Western Economic Diversification (WD) in this report refer to PrairiesCan’s predecessor, which served all 4 western provinces at the time of publication.
Saskatchewan based Western Innovation (WINN) Initiative recipient, Solido Design Automation Inc, is a world leader in microchip design and characterization software powered by proprietary machine learning technology – a form of artificial intelligence.
Solido's software helps engineers optimize chip designs in ways that are faster than working on designs using other manual or automated approaches.
Solido has hired, either directly or indirectly, 46 engineers, computer scientists and mathematicians in Saskatoon. This is thanks in part to 2 loans worth over $3 million through the WINN Initiative. The loans, in 2014 and 2017, helped it bring to market machine-learning software used to design electronic chips.
In November 2017, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500TM ranked Solido 425th among the 500 fastest growing technology companies in North America. From 2013 to 2016, Solido grew 185%. Since 2009, Solido has been growing by between 50% and 70% per year.
Siemens AG, Europe's largest industrial manufacturing company, announced in November 2017 that it had bought Solido. Speculated as one of the largest technology deals in Saskatchewan history, this transaction will enable Solido to continue to draw on the talent of the University of Saskatchewan's engineering and computer scienceprograms at Innovation Place.
Exciting times are ahead at Solido with further research and development in other areas of automating electronic chip design.
Photo credit: Solido Design Automation Inc.
