Black Semiconductor Secures Landmark €254M in Series A for Graphene Chip Innovation
Black Semiconductor, a German startup pioneering next-generation chip technology, has raised an impressive €254 million in Series A funding. This represents one of the largest investments to date in a European deep tech company focused on chip manufacturing.
The funding round comprises €228.7 million in public funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, allocated over the next seven years under the IPCEI ME/CT program. Additionally, the company secured €25.7 million in equity financing.
The equity portion was led by Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures, with participation from prominent venture capital firms, corporations, and industry leaders such as Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds, NRW.BANK, and the company's existing seed investors Vsquared Ventures, Cambium Capital, and Onsight Ventures founded by Hermann Hauser.
With this fresh capital injection, Black Semiconductor plans to accelerate its research and development efforts and establish a pilot manufacturing line in Aachen, Germany. This facility, slated for inauguration by 2026, will demonstrate the seamless integration of graphene into electronic chips, a crucial step toward the company's long-term goal of producing and implementing high-quality graphene chips in Europe.
Furthermore, the funding will enable Black Semiconductor to expand its workforce, with plans to create 90 new high-tech positions, increasing its total headcount from 30 to 120 employees by 2026.
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Daniel Schall and Sebastian Schall, Black Semiconductor is developing a novel approach to building chip networks using graphene. This technology aims to speed up data communication between chips, delivering improved performance, enhanced energy efficiency, and significant cost reductions through a 60% reduction in required production steps.
The company's groundbreaking hardware and technology facilitate optical chip-to-chip connections, enabling chips to interact almost as a single unit. By overcoming current limitations in silicon chip architecture, Black Semiconductor's innovation seeks to address existing barriers for transformative applications across various industries, including efficient data centers, generative and embedded AI, and autonomous driving.
Dr. Daniel Schall, co-founder and CEO of Black Semiconductor, expressed his gratitude for the strong support from the government and investors, stating, "The investment enables us to drive our product development and 300 mm wafer pilot production facility forward at full speed. As traditional chip technology moves closer to its technological and economic limits, our innovation paves the way for faster, more powerful, cost-efficient, and energy-efficient computation."
Patrick Huke, Partner and Head of Porsche Ventures, highlighted the significance of the investment, saying, "Our lead investment in Black Semiconductor together with Project A represents a great opportunity, harnessing photonics technology seamlessly integrated into conventional chips for a variety of industries, use cases and future AI applications. Fuelled by a combination of public and private investors, the Black Semiconductor team is now in a great position to build a strong semiconductor business within Europe, strengthening not only our domestic competitiveness but also the overall European chip ecosystem."
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