About StarIC

Engineering the Future of
Intelligence.

Toronto-rooted and globally minded, StarIC brings together analog, mixed-signal, and photonic engineers across Canada and the Netherlands. As interconnects push beyond conventional limits, we built a team with the depth and shared history to deliver electro-photonic silicon from architecture through first silicon.
By the numbers

A team built for complex silicon.

0+
Years of cumulative design experience
0+
Headcount
0+
IPs in our design library
0
Global design centers
0%
Technical staff with PhDs
Leadership

Industry veterans. Shared history.

Imran Ahmed
Imran Ahmed
CEO & Co-Founder

Imran is CEO and co-founder of StarIC, with more than 20 years of experience in semiconductors and an active leader in the Canadian semiconductor community across multiple successful startup executive roles. He co-founded Kapik Integration in 2008 where he was a director and led the mixed-signal design team. His innovative design architectures formed the basis of many of Kapik’s successful developments and IPs. At Kapik he was also active in marketing and business development while leading many of its strategic investments. In 2019 he was COO/VP Technology at AnalogX (acquired by Rambus), a provider of low-power, high-speed SerDes IPs. He has also worked with Snowbush Microelectronics, Broadcom, and Nortel Networks. Imran received his Ph.D., M.A.Sc, and B.A.Sc (Engineering Science) from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Samir Patel
Samir Patel
Chief Strategy Officer

Samir is the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at StarIC. Throughout Samir's extensive career spanning more than 35 years, he has played integral roles in growing start-ups into large international corporations, including Sankalp Semiconductor (CEO) where he grew it into a more than 1000 person company, Rambus (SVP, GM) where he was an early team member and grew its international operations, and Catalyst Semiconductor where he was a key designer. Prior to StarIC, Samir was CEO of Blue Cheetah Analog Design which focused on rapid generators of die-to-die and chiplet interconnect IP. He has also worked with other companies, including National Semiconductor and Sun Microsystems. Samir is an alumnus of Stanford University, UC Santa Barbara, and IIT Bombay.

Michal Fulmyk
Michal Fulmyk
Co-Founder & Director

Michal is a co-founder and director at StarIC where he leads StarIC’s business development and electronic system designs. He has over 15 years of experience developing and delivering complex electronic systems and high performance ICs. Prior to StarIC, Michal was with Kapik Integration where he led its business development and a number of IC developments in the power management space. At Kapik he also led the expansion of its international business unit in Asia. He brings a multi-disciplinary skill set with a strong track record in technical and managerial roles. Michal received an M.A.Sc., and B.A.Sc. (Engineering Science) from the University of Toronto.

Younis Allasasmeh
Younis Allasasmeh
Co-Founder & Director

Younis is a co-founder and director at StarIC where he leads StarIC’s analog and interface design work. Younis brings more than 15 years of mixed-signal design and management experience. Prior to StarIC, he was a researcher at Holst Centre/IMEC, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where he developed innovative ultra-low power energy harvesters and biomedical applications. In 2013 he joined Kapik Integration where he led several developments including ICs for sensor interfaces, neural networks, and power converters. At Kapik Younis served as the chief customer interface for a number of projects including multiple tier-one clients. He received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from Mutah University, Jordan, and the M.A.Sc. degree from the University of Guelph, Canada.

David Halupka
David Halupka
Co-Founder & Director

David is a co-founder and director at StarIC where he leads system-level and digital design. David brings 20 years of experience in hardware and embedded system design. He was with Kapik Integration for 11 years, where he led Kapik’s digital design team and was a senior system architect. At Kapik David developed a number of ultra-low power DSPs and domain-specific processor cores. In 2018 David joined Intel's Mixed Signal-IP Group, where he developed an innovative SerDes architectural modelling flow that enabled easy cross-correlation with simulation and post-silicon data. David received his Ph.D., M.A.Sc., and B.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto.

Burak Gönen
Burak Gönen
General Manager, Netherlands

Burak is the General Manager at StarIC Netherlands. He has over 10 years of experience in developing analog and mixed-signal ASICs in challenging application areas such as automotive and data centers. Prior to StarIC he was with Ethernovia and Broadcom as an analog designer and technical lead developing analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters for wireline transceivers. He is an active member of the Dutch and the European semiconductor communities. He is a member of IEEE European Solid-State Electronics Research Conference technical program committee. Burak received his Ph.D. and M.Sc degrees from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands and B.Sc from the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

Annette van't Spyker
Annette van't Spyker
Director of HR and Admin

Annette is a director at StarIC where she leads HR and people strategy. She is a senior HR leader with extensive global experience building and scaling People functions in high‑growth technology and consulting environments. Before joining StarIC, she acted as the VP, Human Resources at Untether AI, where she led the multi‑year people strategy, integrating organizational design and engagement programs for distributed engineering teams across Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Prior roles include EVP, Talent at Connected.io and over a decade in senior HR leader roles at Capgemini, guiding executive development, HR transformation, and large‑scale integration initiatives across North America and globally. Annette holds an MBA from McMaster University and an LLM from Osgoode Law School, specializing in Employment and Labour Law.

Global presence

Two hubs. One global team.

Toronto, Canada
Head Office & Design Center
Utrecht, Netherlands
Europe Design Center
Ecosystem & industry

Industry & ecosystem alliances.

StarIC works with foundries, photonics networks, interconnect programs, and industry groups, from silicon photonics platforms and integrated photonics ecosystems to high-speed interconnect programs and national industry alliances.

Work with StarIC

Partner on ecosystem programs, license IP, or explore custom silicon, or join the team in Toronto and Utrecht.