Bristol, England, November 16th, 2007– Nanotech Semiconductor Limited ("Nanotech"), a fabless IC company specializing in advanced Analog and Mixed-Signal ICs for fiber optic communications, today announced it had received the Start Up of the Year award from the National Microelectronics Institute.

Presenting the award, Rob Galuszka, of Cadence Design Systems said:

“The NMI Start Up of the year award recognises early stage companies that show exciting growth potential by virtue of their technology, business model, management team, and of course, the market opportunity. The standard was very high this year causing differences of opinions amongst the judges; however a clear winner did emerge. What is most interesting about this company is that they are not an obvious choice as they are not making headlines by taking significant amounts of VC funding or using the latest process technologies. Instead, they have worked intelligently to grow their business by first addressing "me too" products with improved cost and performance features before moving on to riskier and sexier products.

This is a story of serial entrepreneurial success – the management team has over 140 years industry experience, have carefully managed their growth and capital requirements and most significantly, have executed their plan impressively. This company was established in 2003 and supplies its ultra-low power, gigabit data link IC products into diverse consumer and industrial markets demonstrating best-in-class performance and cost leadership. NMI, and award sponsor Cadence are very pleased to announce that this year the start up award goes to Nanotech Semiconductor Ltd."

Gary Steele, CEO, commented: "We are very happy to receive this recognition, which is all the more pleasing when the jury consists of our industry peers, who really understand the chip business and therefore what makes our business special."

Brian Williams, VP Operations added: "The NMI have provided great support to the UK fabless industry, organising excellent support forums, technical networking opportunities, hosting international conferences and encouraging links between government and industry. Long may it continue."

About Nanotech Semiconductor
Nanotech is a Venture Capital backed, UK based fabless chip company, focused on Analog and mixed-signal ICs principally for fiber-optics based communications.
www.nanosemi.co.uk