Black Semiconductor raises €254m for graphene ICs

Black Semiconductor, the four year-old German startup pursuing graphene ICs, has secured €228.7 million from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia over the next 7 years under the EU support structure IPCEI ME/CT.

Alongside the public funding, Black Semiconductor has raised €25.7 million in equity funding.

The round was led by Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures, with participants which include Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds, NRW.BANK, Vsquared Ventures, Cambium Capital, and Hermann Hauser’s Onsight Ventures.

Black is a spin-out from the University of Aachen co-founded by brothers Daniel and Sebastian Schall (pictured) who are the CEO and CFO.

“The investment enables us to drive our product development and 300 mm wafer pilot production facility forward at full speed,” says co-founder and CEO Daniel Schall, “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.”

Black is developing a way to build networks of chips leveraging graphene. These networks speed up data communication between chips for performance, improved energy-efficiency, and a reduction in manufacturing costs through 60% fewer production steps required.

Black aims to enable mass production of graphene semiconductors in full compliance with existing industry standards. The company’s technology and hardware facilitate optical chip-to-chip connections.

With the funding, the company is on track to realize the first phase of its vision: advancing a new generation of chip technology from research to mass production by 2031.