Ratel Semiconductor

Ratel Semiconductor is a South Korean fabless startup that designs and sells high-performance analog and power management integrated circuits (PMICs). The company focuses on developing PMICs for display applications and is expanding into solutions for the automotive sector. Its product strategy aims to provide high efficiency, low electromagnetic interference (EMI), and competitive overall system bill of materials (BOM) costs for customers.

The company was founded in November 2023 by CEO Justin (Soonkoo) Park. Park has over 25 years of experience in the analog IC industry, including a 19-year tenure at Richtek, a major power management semiconductor company, where he held roles such as Korea Country Manager and Vice President of Business Development. He established Ratel Semiconductor to address the growth potential of Korean fabless companies and compete in the global semiconductor market. The company is staffed by a team of experts with an average of over 15 years of experience in the field.

Within a year of its founding, Ratel Semiconductor secured $1.4 million in seed funding and was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' TIPS program, which provided R&D funding to develop an energy-efficient LED driver IC for AI laptops. In 2025, the company received a strategic investment from automotive semiconductor firm Telechips and was chosen for the DIPS 1000+ program, securing further development funding. Ratel Semiconductor planned to launch four PMIC products by mid-2025.

Keywords: Power Management ICs, PMIC, analog semiconductors, fabless startup, automotive semiconductors, display drivers, LED driver IC, system-on-chip, energy efficiency, integrated circuits, semiconductor design, electronics components, Korean fabless, AI laptops, high-performance ICs