Three founders, one mission, and a new chapter

This month, the founding team of Vulkos graduated from the University of Bristol’s Centre For Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Europe's leading entrepreneurial programme. For the last stretch, we have built Vulkos in the margins: between lectures, deadlines, and dissertations. That chapter is now closed, and a new one starts today.

Who we are

We came together as a transdisciplinary mix of electrical engineering, business & management and social-policy, all linked together for a passion to innovate and impact the world around us. Three of us, three master's degrees, and one conviction we could not walk away from: that getting into the semiconductor industry feels impossible, and that it does not have to stay that way.

Along the way, that conviction started to earn its keep. Over the past 4 months we’ve been winners of the Runway Awards, the New Enterprise Competition and SetSquared’s Unique Innovation Award - as well as National Finalists of the Hult Prize and global finalists of the AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards! Along the way we’ve also become proud members of the NVIDIA Inception Program for AI startups.

Our shared mission to spread awareness and opportunity in the semiconductor market, has been awarded over £36,000 in cash and credits to build the pipeline for the next generation of semiconductor talent.

Why Vulkos exists

Nearly 40% of the UK's semiconductor workforce is set to retire within fifteen years. At the same time, the tools for chip design remain expensive, outdated, and built for senior engineers in cash-heavy corporations. For students, career switchers and startups across the globe, the barriers are steep enough to stop them before they have even begun.

Vulkos exists to lower those barriers: democratising the tools, the education, and the opportunities to build the next generation of chip designers, all in the browser, with no install. We’re proudly building open-source, to cut the untenable financial costs of traditional semiconductor design: to ensure the next generation of designers can get hands-on, without breaking the bank.

We believe that learning to become a semiconductor engineer is a lot like learning to drive, and right now you’re forced to learn in a Ferrari - or not learn at all.

What graduation changes

The mission has not changed. Our focus has. No more splitting attention between coursework and company: from today, all three of us are all in, full-time, on Vulkos. We’re no longer students balancing a many hats, we’re dedicated fully to building impact on the sector.

What's next

There is a lot to build, and we would love for you to be part of it. Create an account to start learning, or get in touch if you would like to partner with us.

The learning does not stop here. It just gets applied.