UnitySC, a French company that provides metrology and inspection equipment for the semiconductor industry, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €48M in a fresh round of funding.
The investment was led by Jolt Capital, the French State through French Tech Souveraineté (a programme operated by Bpifrance), and Supernova Invest, who will join majority shareholder Fogale Nanotech on the board of directors.
Pierre Garnier, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, says, “We’ve been following UnitySC since its creation as a spin-off of Fogale, and we also played a direct role in the consolidating acquisitions made in 2016 and 2018. We are thrilled by the giant steps UnitySC has made since then and delighted to have gathered the French public investment bank Bpifrance and our deeptech peers at Supernova Invest to continue writing the success story of UnitySC and turning them into a giant of semicon capital equipment.”
“Innovative technology and solutions for semiconductor”
In the sectors like automotive, IoT or communication devices, the demand for electronic chips is increasing, both in volumes and performance. This makes the manufacturing process of measurement and inspection of wafers critical in order to ensure minimal rates of failure and increase yield.
Advanced packaging, such as 3-dimensional integrated circuits (3DIC), one of the current key drivers for semiconductors performance, can require over 1000 fabrication steps, each one a vector of potential failure. With cascading defects, the overall yield can plummet, making high-speed quality control the best insurance and an ideal way to save energy and reduce costs.
This is where UnitySC looks to make a difference.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Montbonnot near Grenoble, the company says it is recognised as a key player in inspection and metrology. It combines advanced technologies in automated optical inspection and 3D imaging with high depth of focus line scanning, temporal-mode interferometry, spectrometry, and phase shift analysis. This enables customers to deliver higher yields and achieve a faster time to market.
UnitySC provides standard and customised solutions adapted to specific industrial needs and constraints, enabling a new era in process control.
Besides advanced packaging measuring, the company also provides a full range of equipment dedicated to other types of high-end processes, notably in patterned and unpatterned defect inspection for compound semiconductors, transparent substrates or speciality devices (MEMS and power, automotive, RF).
Currently, UnitySC has a global footprint with subsidiaries in Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, and the US. With over 150 active patents, the company benefits from decisive technology advantages that offer improved throughput, higher sensitivity, and the ability to measure on both sides of wafers.
The French company reports that it has witnessed a growth of 70 per cent since 2020 YoY and its revenue is expected to double in 2022. UnitySC says it is scaling 3X faster than the global semiconductor capital equipment market.
Capital utilisation
The proceeds will help UnitySC to expand and accelerate its growth initiatives and will be used to finance working capital, a new R&D programme, new subsidiaries in China and South Korea, new manufacturing capabilities, and a demo lab in Asia.
Besides, the funds will also help the company to further establish its leadership in the growing market of semiconductor metrology and inspection equipment, expected to pass the €5B mark by 2024.
CEO of UnitySC, Dan Lee, says, “In the past 2 years, despite the global supply chain challenges, our team has demonstrated its ability to scale market adoption and improve profitability. Demand for compound semiconductors and advanced packaging is booming, which strengthens UnitySC’s market positioning with our differentiated metrology and inspection solutions. This significant new round of funding, led by a series of professional investors well accustomed to the challenges of scaling deep tech, will allow us to turn the company into an unshakable leader of next-gen IC chips’ quality control.”
Brief about the investors
Jolt Capital provides growth equity funding to European B2B technology companies about to go global and with revenues from €15M to €50M. The firm’s proprietary AI platform, Jolt.Ninja, improves mapping of Europe’s technology ecosystem, ESG-compliant deal flow generation, due diligence, and post-investment activities.
Launched in June, 2020, by the French government, French Tech Souveraineté is an investment package managed by Bpifrance, with an initial fund of €150M to support French technology companies developing technologies of the future of a sovereign nature.
Bpifrance Investissement is the management company that handles Bpifrance’s equity investments. Bpifrance is the French national investment bank: it finances businesses – at every stage of their development – through loans, guarantees, equity investments, and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extra financial services like training and consultancy to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges.
Supernova Invest is a deeptech VC firm in France, managing €400+M AUM. The firm has invested in more than 70+ impact startups that develop products and services leveraging breakthrough technologies in four transition-centric sectors: health, energy & environment, Industry 4.0, and digital technology.
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