Aachen-based startup Black Semiconductor has raised a €254.4m Series A to make graphene-based microchips, designed for applications ranging from autonomous driving to generative AI. €228.7m was secured from Germany’s federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia under the European IPCEI Microelectronics programme — an EU programme which will invest public funding of €8.1bn in 56 companies for chip development and manufacturing. The amount will be drip-fed to the company over seven years.
Alongside public funding, Black Semiconductor raised €25.7m in equity led by Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures, with participation from Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds and Vsquared Ventures, among others.
The investment comes as European governments are trying to reduce the region’s dependence on China. Black Semiconductor will use the capital to quadruple its headcount, from 30 to 120, in the next two years and set up a pilot manufacturing facility in Aachen by 2026.
Black Semiconductor was founded in 2019 as an independent company, spun out of the non-profit nanotechnology research centre AMO, in Aachen. It produces microchips with a photonic layer on top (which uses light to transfer data instead of silicon), using graphene as the main material for its electrical circuits. This technology speeds up data communication between chips; photonic interfaces on chips can process data 100 to 1,000 times faster than standard chips, according to CEO and cofounder Daniel Schall. “We have developed something that is brand new and nobody has done it ever before. It’s a fundamental change,” says Schall. The investor interest in Black Semiconductor’s technology comes at a time of high demand for data processing — which has been rapidly accelerated by mass AI adoption.
