Founder of the month: milli IC
17.02.2025
Emma Schmitt
Founder of the month
Address the topics of articles of association and tax advice at an early stage and take advantage of expert mentoring. These are some of the tips from our start-up of the month, milli IC. The start-up came together at the KIT and develops high-performance radio frequency circuits in the field of millimetre wave technology – also known as chip design to laymen.
In an interview with milli IC
We talked to Alexander from the milli IC team about their journey from the initial idea to market entry, hurdles, challenges and successes. Want to know more? Listen to the podcast episode on Spotify or Apple Podcast.
What does your company stand for?
milli IC develops high-performance radio-frequency circuits in the field of millimeter wave technology. Through our proximity to current research, we want to stand above all for transferring the latest and most innovative solutions into commercial products. This is done either in-house or as a development service provider for third parties.
Where and how did you get the idea to found a company?
Ersufi from the founding team had been toying with the idea of founding his own spin-off for a long time. In addition, a design method for high-frequency power amplifiers that was suitable for patenting and commercialisation was developed at the KIT around 2022. In 2023, industrial demand from VEGA Grieshaber KG arose in discussions with Prof. Ulusoy. At first, the processes ran in parallel and independently of each other and were brought together by Prof. Ulusoy. The combination finally provided the impetus for the foundation at the end of 2023.
How did the founding team come together?
The founding team emerged from the academic environment of the KIT. Esref Türkmen pursued his industrial doctorate at the KIT. This is how he came into contact with the other founders of the KIT. Prof. Ahmet Cagri Ulusoy, professor at the Institute for High-Frequency Technology and Electronics, and Alexander Haag, former research associate at the KIT. It was important to us not to be a purely academic spin-off, which is why Esref’s many years of industry experience were a great addition to the KIT team. VEGA Grieshaber KG, a global leader in innovative level and pressure measurement technology, came on board as an industrial co-partner and supporter. Even before the founding process, there were personal contacts between KIT and VEGA and the company’s need for chip design was known. So the collaboration was the logical consequence.
Where did you see significant hurdles in the founding process?
On the one hand, we saw a bureaucratic aspect that we engineers had not dealt with much in our previous technology-oriented careers. On the other hand, there are financial hurdles. Since we started with a private investor, acquiring an initial investment was a challenge for us, but it was relatively easy to solve. In addition, we were able to fall back on private support for some of the bureaucratic aspects. In the long term, however, chip design requires very high investments, which are difficult to justify in a start-up.
Where did you get support?
Initially, we sought advice from the KIT Founders Forge on topics such as EXIST funding, but we saw critical points for us in the public funding conditions that meant significant disadvantages for us compared to a private investment. Since we continued with the private investment, we subsequently sought private information or advice.
Has anything changed for you since the formal founding?
Since our pre-incorporation period was mainly limited to negotiations with our investor, a lot has changed since the company was founded. Mainly because we are actively operating as a company. In the field of chip design, it is difficult to establish contacts with the major chip manufacturers if there is no existing company behind you. As a result of our contacts, our view of the issue of time is different today than it was at the time of our founding. As chip developers, we are dependent on the companies that manufacture these chips, and the process of accessing technology and obtaining specific information, such as expected costs, has proven to be much more difficult than initially assumed.
Have global crises affected your startup?
Due to the politically highly contested chip technology, we see that global crises definitely have and can have an impact on our market. Examples of this are the US and EU Chips Act. Initially, we expect this to have a positive impact on our future, but of course there are no guarantees.
What are your next big milestones in the next 12 months?
We see the completion of the development of a first fully functional high-performance radar prototype for level sensors as a major milestone in the next 12 months. In between, there will be a few more milestones, such as the hopefully positive confirmation of submitted project proposals for public funding programmes to expand the milli IC portfolio with innovative products and the expansion of our team with additional engineers.
What qualities do you think a founder needs to have?
Founders should be able to do many different things and think on their feet. We have found that it is important to be very good at one thing, usually the technical area of the start-up, but still be able to handle all the other tasks that arise. For us, staying power and a little bite are relevant. Not everything will always go smoothly right away. But don’t forget to have some fun too.
Do you have any practical tips for other young company founders?
In general, we can say that personal contacts and recommendations are often door openers and greatly accelerate processes. Here, for example, we benefit from the contacts of Prof. Ulusoy and VEGA. It is particularly helpful to be able to draw on the wealth of experience, active support and mentoring of experts, in our case Prof. Ulusoy.
When setting up a limited liability company (GmbH), we recommend discussing the articles of association and seeking tax advice and clarifying any open questions at an early stage, and planning with generous capital buffers.
From today’s perspective, is there anything you would do differently?
We would say that we are very satisfied internally. Of course, there are external factors that we would like to improve, but often we have no control over them. Overall, in retrospect, we would plan even more generously.
