Congratulations!
"Weebit Nano Turns 10:
Only the Persistent Survive
Coby Hanoch
It’s January 7, 2025, and today, Weebit Nano is 10 years old. What an amazing milestone!
When the company began in 2015, we had ideas based on the work of Prof. James Tour from Rice University. The ideas were around resistance as the basis of memory, and while still in the research phase, Weebit’s founders knew the concepts were solid, and also knew that very soon the industry would need a replacement for flash memory.
That year the company hired its first engineer, Amir Regev, who today is Weebit’s VP Quality & Reliability. One of Amir’s first projects was to look for an excellent R&D partner, and after much due diligence, the company engaged with
CEA-Leti, the French research organization who continues as our strategic R&D partner today. It was the beginning of an amazing partnership.
In 2016, Weebit hired its first PhD in France, Giuseppe Piccolboni, and in 2017, the company established its French subsidiary.
Weebit was fortunate in the early days to catch the attention of Dadi Perlmutter, who had retired from his most recent position at Intel as EVP, Chief Product Officer and GM of the Intel Architecture Group, overseeing all the company’s products. He agreed to become the Chairman of the Weebit Board of Directors.
Getting funding was a big challenge in the days when VCs were focused on cyber, automotive and the initial phases of AI. We were lucky that at the same time, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) was looking to expand its roster of listed companies beyond the many focused on mining, energy and finance to include more technology companies. As part of this effort, the ASX sent several delegations to Israel to investigate the possibilities, and numerous Israeli technology companies including Weebit decided to list on the ASX.
Weebit’s former CEO, Yossi Keret, worked with Dadi and Ashley Krongold, one of our very first investors, to list on the ASX through a reverse takeover in August 2016. Yossi focused on setting up the company’s initial infrastructure in Israel, France and Australia, including hiring our CFO, Alla Felder. Shortly thereafter, Yossi had to step down for personal reasons and recommended me to replace him. (Thank you for that, Yossi!)
I joined the company in October 2017, with only two engineers on board and a technology that was still in university-level R&D. Dadi brought on board Atiq Raza, a legend in the semiconductor space (previously President and COO of AMD; Chairman and CEO of RMI – just a bit of his deep experience), as well as Yoav Nissan-Cohen, who did a PhD in Device Physics under Prof. Dov Frohman, the inventor of the first digital non-volatile memory (NVM). Yoav was also a founder of Tower Semiconductor, one of the top 10 foundries. Yoav became an executive director on the Weebit Board, helping guide technology development in the early days.
2018 was a year of transition for Weebit. On the technical side we delivered a 1Mb array and we started hiring a strong team. In 2019 we overcame a tough financial situation and started pushing for partnerships and looking for initial customers. At the time we had more of a focus on the very large semiconductor market in China, but when COVID hit, together with a growing trade war, we decided to shift our focus to the rest of the world.
Despite all odds, 2020 became a major year of growth. We had a good capital raise in June, followed by another in November. In October of that year, we completed the
ReRAM (
RRAM) technology stabilization process. At the same time, we hired three well-known experts to set up our executive staff: Ishai Naveh as CTO, leading our device and process work; Ilan Sever as VP R&D, leading analog and digital design efforts; and Eran Briman as VP Marketing and Business Development. In 2022 we brought on board Gabriel Molas, with close to 20 years of ReRAM research experience at Leti, to be our Chief Scientist.
Technical progress continued with the qualification of our technology at Leti (on STMicro wafers) at 85⁰C and then 125⁰C. We closed our first licensing agreement with
SkyWater, and showed we know how to transfer the recipe and achieve qualification there too. This led to a licensing agreement with
DB HiTek, where we are now focused on moving towards full qualification.
In 2023 and 2024 we completed the executive team, adding Gideon Intrater as an Advisor to the CEO, and Issachar Ohana as Chief Revenue Officer.
And now, just before our 10th anniversary, we closed a licensing agreement with one of the leading integrated device manufacturers (IDMs),
onsemi, starting 2025 with a bang!
10 years ago, the world knew it wanted a new NVM, but it was not clear what that would look like. There were
MRAM,
FeRAM,
PCM, Optane, 3D-Xpoint, ReRAM and others. There were other companies developing ReRAM, already trying to commercialize years before Weebit.
However, as time passed, it became clear that many of these technologies were too expensive to manufacture or had other side effects (like sensitivity to magnetic fields), and today it is clear that the leading technology emerging from the pack is ReRAM. Other ReRAM developers tried using non-standard materials and tools to implement ReRAM, and many failed, leaving Weebit Nano as one of the only three qualified ReRAM technologies to-date, and the only independent supplier of qualified ReRAM in the market.
Over the past 10 years as we have pushed Weebit ReRAM from research towards production, we have had many ups and downs, but one of the key traits shared by our team members is their persistence. Because of this, we persist in our goal to deliver excellent, cost-effective technology towards becoming the #1 embedded
NVM vendor. Interestingly, this persistence is reflected in our
technology itself – ReRAM as a
non-volatile memory is a
persistent memory that retains its data even when power is turned off.
I am thankful for the opportunity to lead Weebit, and for the amazing Board and team we have. And I am very thankful to our loyal shareholders, many of whom have been with us almost from the start.
What a journey it has been! And it is only the beginning, as we look towards the next 10 years, which will be years of commercialization and expansion, with the vision of becoming the #1 supplier of embedded NVM and also developing a discrete solution.
We know that Weebit has the recipe for success. Our robust and fully qualified technology is continuously improving under the hands of a strong R&D team, including 13 PhDs and experts in all four pillars of ReRAM: Device, Process,
Analog design and Digital design, all under the
leadership of a very experienced and focused management team. With our solid team, robust technology, several commercial deals completed, and having recently raised A$50 million, we are well positioned to make our vision a reality.
2025 is shaping up to be a very exciting year, and a great start for the next 10 years!"
It’s January 7, 2025, and today, Weebit Nano is 10 years old. What an amazing milestone! When the company began in 2015, we had ideas based on the work of Prof. James Tour from Rice University. The ideas were around resistance as the basis of memory, and while still in the research phase...
www.weebit-nano.com