Walter Wohlmuth
Walter Wohlmuth is a semiconductor foundry and integrated device manufacturer executive (Vanguard International Semiconductor, WIN Semiconductors, First Solar, Qorvo) who in his parallel, concurrent career has become an investor in a variety of deep tech startups. In his career, he has led teams and organizations developing core semiconductor technologies for digital, wireless, and solar industries. He led strategic planning, business development, and profit loss centers in the US and Taiwan. He also led the sale of Fujitsu corporate’s stake in the Aizuwakamatsu, Japan 6” semiconductor wafer fab to Singaporean investors. This was an appointment for the joint owners; Transphorm of Santa Barbara, CA and Fujitsu, Japan.
Walter has made a variety of personal Angel investments in the deep tech space over the years. His investment experience includes 3 successful exits and 1 failure to date including OneTree MicroDevices of Santa Rosa, CA whose main products were for cable television amplifiers and who was acquired by Analog Devices; Redlen Technologies of Victoria, Canada whose main products were for medical imaging and who was acquired by Canon Inc of Tokyo, Japan; and IconicRF of Belfast, UK whose main products were 5G and low-earth orbit satellite circuits and which was acquired by MicroChip Technologies, Chandler, AZ. Foveate of Haifa, Israel worked on image sensing for security systems but failed to survive. Current investments include GuerrillaRF based in Greensboro, NC and Anokiwave based in San Diego, CA both of which are working on 5G cellular products and systems; Pallidus based in Albany, NY working on novel Silicon Carbide substrate growth for electric vehicles; Maja Systems based in Milpitas, CA working on wireless communications for industrial and automotive; and SweGaN AB based in Linkoping, Sweden working on Gallium Nitride materials for wireless and power electronics industries and wherein Walter serves as a member on the board of directors.
Walter has a PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL in electrical and computer engineering and masters plus undergraduate degrees in engineering physics from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He lives in Taipei, Taiwan and is the proud father of 1 young, ambitious man who is 19 years old attending the University of Washington in Seattle.
In his spare time, Walter enjoys hiking, bicycling, swimming, scuba diving, hockey, and travel.