Berlin, June 2024 – YPOG advised Project A Ventures as lead investor on the €254.4 million funding round of Aachen-based DeepTech start-up Black Semiconductor. Porsche Ventures acted as co-lead investor and further new investors include Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds and NRW.BANK. Existing investors such as Vsquared Ventures, Cambium Capital and Onsight Ventures are also participating in the series A financing round. Project A Ventures already co-led the seed financing round.
In addition to the €25.7 million in equity financing from venture capital investors, the semiconductor start-up is receiving €228.7 million in subsidies from the Federal Ministry of Economics and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The public funding is spread over seven years in accordance with the EU IPCEI ME/CT program.
In total, this is one of the largest financings for a DeepTech chip-making company in Europe.
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Daniel Schall and Sebastian Schall, the company uses graphene to improve the performance and efficiency of chips. Graphene is an innovative material that accelerates data communication between chips and increases energy efficiency. This technology thus enables transformative applications in various areas such as artificial intelligence, data centers and autonomous driving.
The start-up intends to use the new capital to expand its production capacities and drive forward the development of a new generation of graphene-based chips.
YPOG already advised Project A Ventures on the seed financing round.
Team
Dr. Frederik Gärtner (Lead, Transactions), Partner, Berlin
Dr. Ferdinand Cadmus (Transactions), Associated Partner, Berlin
Roman Schäle (Transactions), Senior Associate, Berlin
About Project A Ventures
Project A is one of the leading early-stage tech investors in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to $1bn assets under management, Project A supports its portfolio companies with a platform team of over 140 functional experts in key areas such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, sales and recruiting. The venture capital firm was founded in 2012 and has backed more than 100 startups. The portfolio includes companies such as Trade Republic, WorldRemit, sennder, KRY, Spryker, Catawiki, Unmind and Voi.
Further information: https://www.project-a.com/.
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