Silicon Labs Expands in India with New Office in Hyderabad

Press Release

• 29-09-2022

Global IoT leader launches India's first campus - wide Wi-SUN network with IIIT - Hyderabad at the Smart City Living Lab

Hyderabad, September 28th, 2022: Silicon Labs, the leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world, announced the official inauguration of its new office in Hyderabad, located at Salarpuria Sattva Knowledge City. This will be Silicon Labs' largest global centre for engineering and wireless connectivity innovation. With its expansion in Hyderabad, Silicon Labs can continue to grow its talented team developing cutting-edge IoT wireless products and solutions that are advancing industrial, commercial, and home and life applications. Unmatched in its breadth and depth of expertise in IoT technologies, Silicon Labs is well positioned to contribute to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) in India and around the world.

The new office was inaugurated, by Chief Guest Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary - I & C & IT, Government of Telangana, today, Matt Johnson, President, and CEO, Silicon Labs, Manish Kothari, Senior Vice President, Silicon Labs India, the Silicon Labs executive leadership team, and other eminent industry leaders.

Silicon Labs is the global leader in pure-play Internet of Things through its breadth of technologies, depth of expertise, and focus on the IoT wireless market.  Its integrated hardware and software platform and intuitive development tools, make it easy for developers to solve complex wireless challenges and get to market quickly with innovative solutions that transform industries. Silicon Labs’ Hyderabad office is its fastest growing and largest wireless development centre, home to a talented team of hardware, software, and applications engineers. Silicon Labs welcomed nearly 500 employees back into their new Hyderabad office earlier this year, with plans to grow to 1,500 employees by 2025.

Appreciating the work of Silicon Labs towards creating a secure, connected and intelligent wireless ecosystem, Chief Guest Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary - I & C & IT, Government of Telangana, said, “I feel proud to see Hyderabad rapidly becoming the top investment destination for the global technology sector.  The Government of Telangana has successfully created a thriving environment for global companies to access and engage the best talent in the country.   Silicon Labs’ active role in the Smart City Living Lab will witness next-generation technologies - being designed in India for the world - to improve safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, and overall quality of life in densifying cities. I believe Silicon Labs’ corporate culture will also support a more inclusive and varied workplace, attracting young and diverse talent to the technology sector.”

Mr Jayesh Ranjan said, congratulations for your new office here and also for your amazing success over the last few years. I am pleased to learn that you have ramped up from two hundred to five hundred, but much more music to my years is, you are planning to triple it hopefully in the next two or three years. I appreciate the mention of Matt to become a part of the community, that is something which we in the Government are very passionate about, with hundreds of IT companies keep establishing new offices here, become a part of the Hyderabad IT story, but our effort on behalf of the government is how easily they get integrated into the larger community, how do they contribute to the enrichment of that community and of course how do they benefit from being in that community. I would like to share a few thoughts with all of you, obviously if you are planning to ramp up from 500 to 1500 and maintain the same quality of work, especially after seeing your labs and some of the amazing products in terms of longer battery life, in terms of better battery efficiencies, obviously it requires the best possible talent. In Hyderabad and Telangana this is one responsibility the government takes very seriously, about five years ago we identified VLSI as a high priority sector, we started conducting capacity building programs for young students about to complete their formal engineering education and looking to getting into this space but require some finishing, for the last 3 years couple batches were done with some very important VLSI programs, designed with the help of the industry. Some of the best-known VLSI companies, all of whom gave their tools, licenses absolutely free of cost for the students to practice and pick up VLSI skills and we want to do more and more. When we conducted an online session just to expose the students to what this world entails, what kind of career opportunities are there, there was an overwhelming response. Which led us to rework our strategy to accommodate more students, so there is a huge appetite for people to come into this space. If you tell us these are the skill sets you look for in the employees, we will ensure these skill sets are available with the students from day one when employed by you, you can put them on live projects, they should be able to perform. The other aspect which we also feel strongly about is the innovation. What we saw here indicates amazing amount of innovation is possible and it is actually happening, you are of course driving it, but there are large number of startups, entrepreneurs, freelancers, who have their ideas, they may not be a part of Silicon Labs formally, but they are also doing similar work and intend to do something equally important, how do we work with them, how do you take them into your innovation programs. Again, I am happy to share with you, that we have recently got some space, where we want to set up a dedicated incubator for the VLSI startups. Obviously, the success of these kind of incubators is dependent to a large extent on the kind of corporate support, corporate partnership and mentoring you senior engineers and experts can provide, so do look at that possibility also. That of course can benefit the startup much more than you, but sometimes you also get someone who looks at a problem you are facing for a long period of time and may find a new perspective as an outsider. I have seen this happen, many corporates in Hyderabad after they faced innovation challenges, told us that some very long persisting problems got implementable solution through startups, which pointed out and set them in the right direction, which I feel Silicon Labs also should do. The other important bit is the applications of IoT, there is tremendous amount of opportunity in India in particular and also in Telangana, of actually solving real life problems like IoT using sensors, we feel that no technology is perfect unless it’s able to solve the pressing problems the most common person faces and keeping this philosophy in mind we have started encouraging IoT applications, applications of other emerging technologies in various other verticals. I will tell you a couple of examples, many of you know that agriculture is one sector which supports a large number of people, but there are lots of inefficiencies in agriculture the way it is practiced in India, farmers lose out on productivity and income due to various gaps in their methodology and we started working on it very seriously for the last three years and found some very useful IoT driven solutions. For example there is a concept in agriculture called precision agriculture, but to implement we need to have precise data points, about moisture, humidity, alkalinity, soil etc. Just by following precision agriculture they are able to improve their productivity. As a government our role is to bring everything together and enjoy everyone’s success. Among the 28 states in the country there are half a dozen states today pushing the frontiers of technology exploration and we are very proud to share with you that this state is really at the top of that and presence of companies like yours will give us further boost to all our endeavors. One point I should speak about which the Government doesn’t look up in a good way, only 50% people are coming to the office, when everything is becoming normal, we should bring as many people as possible to the office, please push for it. I hope you continue to grow and succeed and tomorrow the contribution this office makes to all the global work that Silicon Labs is doing that’s should really be at the top.                         

Smart City Living Lab Partnership

Silicon Labs is also the founding corporate partner of the Smart City Living Lab set up at the International Institute of Information Technology - Hyderabad (IIIT- H) in collaboration with the Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), the Government of Telangana, and the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC). The Smart City Living Lab plays a part in the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission to drive economic growth and improve quality of life by enabling local development and harnessing technology. Silicon Labs and IIIT-Hyderabad will launch India's first campus-wide Wi-SUN network at the IIIT-H Smart City Living Lab tomorrow, September 29. The network will serve as an innovative street-lighting application, with 30 built-in network nodes connecting the campus street lamps for remote monitoring and control.  This launch establishes a platform to build future smart city applications and demonstrates Silicon Labs' commitment to contributing to the technology ecosystem in India and industry-academia partnerships.

Matt Johnson, President and CEO, Silicon Labs, said, “Hyderabad marks our growing commitment to supporting the development of India and the greater Asia Pacific region. Silicon Labs Hyderabad is fast becoming the leading IoT wireless technology centre in the region. For 15 years, Silicon Labs has been investing time, talent, and resources into building an unprecedented platform to support the broadest set of wireless technologies, standards, and ecosystems worldwide. Our Hyderabad wireless development centre is instrumental to our innovation and growth.”

Manish Kothari, Senior Vice President, Silicon Labs India, said, “At the nexus of cutting-edge technology and digital transformation lies Silicon Labs India. We are pleased to expand our team in Hyderabad. We will use our extensive experience to connect with the local community and open doors for the city's competitive talent pool. Our Hyderabad location will be a centre of excellence for integrated hardware and software platforms, user-friendly development tools, and an unsurpassed ecosystem of new wireless technologies to boost innovation and automation for our customers.”

The Hyderabad office is located in Salarpuria Sattva Knowledge City, one of the largest Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) platinum-rated campuses. Silicon Labs currently occupies levels 2 and 3 in the Octave block, Parcel 4, totaling more than 100,000 square feet, with plans to expand to level 4 in 2023 to accommodate additional team growth. The office houses more than 10,000 square feet of hardware and software labs and ample breakout spaces for fostering collaboration and innovation. Other amenities include quick access to eateries, socializing venues, and public transport.

Silicon Labs is headquartered in Austin, TX, with 20 offices worldwide.

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