Investors were drawn to a wide range of innovative approaches in Q2 2025, backing startups developing superconducting logic, chips for an emerging number format, large data processors, and novel power semi architectures. At the same time, photonics continues to draw investment dollars due to its ability to shift data rapider and with less energy at both the chip-to-chip and data center levels.
The manufacturing and test side also was an active area during the quarter, with investment going toward abrasive-free planarization, chips built in space, improved dicing, additive manufacturing for interconnects, and ensuring chips are fit for high-radiation environments.
Other highlights include physics-informed AI for chip design, secure silicon, and a massive round for neutral-atom quantum systems. Semiconductor Engineering tracked 75 startups in Q2 that collectively raised $1.9 billion.
Chips
AttoTude raised $50.0M in Series B funding led by Mayfield and joined by The Westly Group, Sutter Hill Ventures, Canaan Partners, and Wing Venture Capital. AttoTude develops terahertz interconnect over wire technology for AI and hyperscale data centers. The THz radio over wire platform leverages standard ASIC manufacturing processes to communicate up to 40m over low-loss wire for high-speed signals, indepconcludeent of data rate and without the apply of photonics. Funds will be applyd to scale manufacturing operations, expand customer engagements, and accelerate product development. Founded in 2024, it is based in Menlo Park, California, USA, and has raised $91M to date.
Speedata raised $44.0M in Series B funding from Walden Catalyst Ventures, 83North, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pitango First, Viola Ventures, and individual investors. Speedata’s Analytics Processing Unit (APU) is designed to accelerate data center and cloud-based large data analytic workloads. The APU maps the required processing into its internal hardware pipeline. Associated software automatically configures a data flow in silicon, where row processing is broken into hundreds of steps, each flowing to the next one at every hardware clock. The company states this enables hundreds of rows to be at different stages of processing in the hardware, in parallel, resulting in a processing throughput of over a billion rows per second. Founded in 2019, it is based in Haifa, Israel, and has raised $114M to date.
Snowcap Compute launched with $23.0M in seed funding led by Playground Global. Snowcap is developing a superconducting compute platform for low-temperature AI, quantum-classical hybrid, and HPC systems. The startup applys Josephson junctions to create standard digital chip designs, including CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators. It claims that its superconducting circuits feature switching gates that apply five orders of magnitude less energy than today’s transistors, while being compatible with existing semiconductor fabs and utilizing existing 4.5 Kelvin helium-based cryogenic infrastructure. Founded in 2025, it is based in Palo Alto, California, USA.
Magics Technologies drew €5.7M (~$6.5M) in funding from the Flanders Future Tech Fund, Invest for Job, KU Leuven Research & Development, Gemma Frisius Fund, and the company’s founders. Magics builds radiation-hardened ICs for space systems and nuclear infrastructure. The startup states its radiation-hardened-by-design methodology produces chips that can withstand conditions of up to 100 Mrad / 1 MGy (Si) TID and immunity to Single Event Effects of up to LET > 62.5 MeV · cm²/mg. Funding will be applyd to accelerate the roll out of three product lines: imaging chips for nuclear cameras and inspection systems, precision timing and clock generation ICs for space missions, and sensing and control chips for robotics, actuators, and SMRs. A spin-off from KU Leuven and SCK CEN founded in 2015, it is based in Geel, Belgium.
ONiO closed a €5.0M (~$5.8M) Series A round led by Node.vc and Maki.vc, joined by EIC Fund and MP Pension. ONiO builds ultra-low-power general-purpose microcontrollers for IoT devices that can run on energy harvested from solar, RF, thermal, and piezo sources. Funds will be applyd to produce its wireless MCU, which the startup states operates at 22μW/MHz, cold-starts from under 1µW, and includes RISC-V CPU, radios, power management, security, and memory. Founded in 2016, it is based in Oslo, Norway.
Phoenix Semiconductor closed a $5.5 million seed round led by J2 Ventures and RTX Ventures, joined by IronGate Capital Advisors and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Phoenix recreates legacy chips that are no longer in production but are still critical for keeping large capital investments running. The startup states its process enables it to create drop-in replacement chips for the Department of Defense, automotive, medical, manufacturing, oil & gas, and OEM verticals. Founded in 2023, it is based in Austin, Texas, USA.
Calligo Technologies raised $1.1M in a pre-Series A round led by Seafund and Artha Venture Fund. Calligo has designed an 8-core RISC-V based SoC with a coprocessor specifically designed to handle posits, a number format proposed as an alternative to the IEEE 754 floating-point standard to optimize the memory usage and computing efficiency of HPC, signal processing, machine learning, and other workloads that require large data. It also offers its chip in a PCIe add-on card. Funds will be applyd to develop the second version of its chip and hire. Founded in 2012, it is based in Bengaluru, India.
AI hardware
VSORA raised $46.0M in funding led by Otium and a French family office with participation from Omnes Capital, Adélie Capital, and the European Innovation Council Fund. VSORA develops high-performance AI inference chips for both data centers and edge deployments. The company’s architecture enables it to integrate reasoning engines, large language models, and agentic frameworks with an instruction set that lets it handle pure AI, pure DSP, or any hybrid of the two. Funds will support the production of its upcoming inference chip for data centers. It has also worked on technology that combines AI inference and DSP for L4/5 autonomy. Founded in 2015, it is based in Meudon-La-Forêt, France.
EdgeCortix received an additional JPY 3.0B (~$20.8M) subsidy from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. EdgeCortix provides neural network accelerator IP based on a runtime reconfigurable architecture that reconfigures data paths between accelerator engines to achieve better parallelism and reduce on-chip memory bandwidth. Tarobtaining edge inference applications, it supports both convolutional and transformer networks. The company has implemented the IP in an AI accelerator chip designed for applications requiring real-time Batch=1 AI inferencing. Also available as M.2 modules and PCIe cards, the hardware solutions are paired with a compiler and software framework for deploying edge AI applications. Funds will support development on an edge AI chipset for generative inference and on-device learning. Founded in 2019, it is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Blumind raised $20.0M CAD (~$14.1M) in a Series A round led by Cycle Capital and BDC Capital, joined by existing investors including Fusion Fund, Two Small Fish Ventures, and Real Ventures. Blumind builds ultra-low-power analog AI inference chips for always-on edge applications. Its first-generation AI processor specializes in processing real-time sensor data, while next-generation chips in development will support vision and large language model inferencing. The startup states its all-analog architecture is compatible with advanced CMOS processes and mitigates process, voltage, temperature (PVT) and drift variations. Funds will support hiring, development, and commercialization. Founded in 2020, it is based in Ontario, Canada.
Lumai secured over $10.0M in investment led by Constructor Capital and joined by IP Group, PhotonVentures, Journey Ventures, LIFTT, Qubits Ventures, State Farm Ventures, and TIS Inc. Lumai builds optical processors to accelerate inference for LLMs and other transformer-based AI. Its technology processes matrix multiplication operations within optical beams traveling through 3D space. Its product, tarobtained for AI data centers, combines low-cost optical components and digital control electronics in a PCIe form factor. The startup claims that by applying very wide vectors and high optical clock speeds, it can process data rapider and more efficiently than current solutions. Funds will be applyd to advance product development, hire, and expand its U.S. presence. A spin-out from the University of Oxford founded in 2022, it is based in Oxford, UK.
Chip design
Cognichip emerged from stealth with $33.0M in seed funding led by Lux Capital and Mayfield, with support from FPV and Candou Ventures. Cognichip has created a physics-informed AI foundation model for chip design that it claims can reduce design cycles, cut development costs, and optimize designs for power, performance, and efficiency. For existing designs, the startup states it can enable rapid creation of new product variants and build it simpler to switch manufacturers. Founded in 2024, it is based in Redwood City, California, USA.
Manufacturing & equipment
Forge Nano raised $40.0M in funding led by RockCreek and Ascent Funds, joined by Top Material, Orion Infrastructure Capital, and existing investors. Forge Nano develops atomic layer deposition (ALD) and particle atomic layer deposition (PALD) equipment for coating wafers, powders, and objects at both R&D and commercial scales. For semiconductors, its equipment can conformally coat 200mm wafers for encapsulation, passivation, high-κ dielectric, and metal barrier seed applications. The company claims its nano-coatings for chips can improve processing speeds and reduce power consumption. For batteries, Forge Nano offers a coating process to improve capacity and durability of lithium-ion batteries by protecting against first cycle capacity loss and unwanted reactions, as well as acting as a firewall that resists thermal runaway reaction. The technology also has applications in coating powders applyd in 3D printing, catalysts, and pharmaceuticals. Funds will be applyd for manufacturing expansion and hiring. Founded in 2011 based on research from the University of Colorado, it is based in Thornton, Colorado, USA, and has raised more than $140M to date.
Space Forge raised £22.6M (~$30.0M) in Series A funding led by NATO Innovation Fund with participation from World Fund, National Security Strategic Investment Fund, and British Business Bank. Space Forge launches returnable sainformites for manufacturing advanced materials in space. The company claims that by harnessing the unique conditions of space, including microgravity, vacuum, extreme temperature differentials, and the ability to create a contamination-free environment, the semiconductors it manufactures have fewer defects and thus can operate at a lower energy cost and for a longer lifetime. Space Forge’s first in-orbit demonstration mission is set to launch this year. Founded in 2018, it is based in Cardiff, UK.
Lidrotec closed a $13.5M Series A-2 round led by Lam Capital and Goose Capital, joined by Zeiss Ventures, NRW.BANK, Gründerfonds Ruhr, and others. Lidrotec builds liquid-mediated laser dicing equipment for chip singulation. The system applys controlled fluids to cool and clean the wafer during laser processing, an approach the startup claims reduces material damage, heat affected zone width, and particle defects in grooving and dicing processes, resulting in lower breakage rates and higher yields. It supports both compound and leading-edge semiconductors. Funds will be applyd to accelerate product development and commercialization and for hiring. Founded in 2019, it is based in Bochum, Germany.
FononTech closed a €8.5M (~$9.5M) seed round led by individual investor Sake Bosch with participation from Innovation Industries, Brabant Development Agency, TNO, SHIFT Invest, and grant funding from European Innovation Council Accelerator. FononTech has developed a method for additive printing of complex 3D chip interconnects applying a wide range of conductive inks. Its Impulse Printing technology starts with a custom filling system that fills grooves in a plate under high pressure. The plate, with micron-sized features built applying a lithographic process, is then rapidly heated, transferring the complete pattern in under a millisecond. Selective heating builds it possible to perform local alignment between the pattern and a substrate. The method can also be applyd for displays. Funds will be applyd to finalize the first product. Founded in 2023 as a spin off from TNO, it is based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Test, measurement & inspection
Arena Technologies raised $30.0M in Series B funding. Arena provides an AI-powered platform to accelerate testing, debugging, and optimization of hardware. The platform combines LLMs with specialized deep learning models built for applied physics and an understanding of the real-world test environment. Capabilities span from production line optimization to validation and testing of ICs, SoCs, and PCB subsystems. Founded in 2019, it is based in New York, New York, USA.
Tau Systems secured $20.0M in extconcludeed seed funding led by Quantonation, with participation from Team Global, Alumni Ventures, Impact Ventures, UT Seed Fund, and individual investors. Tau Systems builds ultra-rapid compact laser-plasma accelerators and specialized X-ray free-electron lasers for radiation testing of electronics intconcludeed for space and other harsh environments. The startup has demonstrated an electron beam with an energy of 10 billion electron volts generated in 10 centimeters. Other applications include x-ray imaging, metrology, and medical research. Founded in 2021, it is based in Austin, Texas, USA, has raised $35M to date.
Materials
ChEmpower raised $18.7M in Series A funding led by M Ventures and Rhapsody Venture Partners, joined by Intel Capital, Pangaea Ventures, Foothill Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and TEL Venture Capital. ChEmpower builds chemically reactive polish pads for abrasive-free planarization. The startup states its technology can create defect-free surfaces with superior planarity compared to traditional chemical mechanical planarization. The process also enables water recovery. ChEmpower has demonstrated abrasive-free 300mm copper technology and set up a pilot line for pad production. Funds will be applyd to scale its manufacturing systems, commercialize its product offerings, and recruit talent. Founded in 2019, it is based in Beaverton, Oregon, USA.
Mivium raised $5.0M in equity crowdfunding. Mivium builds high-purity gallium nitride (GaN) materials without the toxic byproducts associated with conventional methods. The company’s first focus is obtainting its GaN particle prototype to market, followed by GaN substrates. It also plans to develop aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) and other wide bandgap materials. Tarobtain industries include power electronics, aerospace, telecommunications, AI infrastructure, photonics, and biotechnology. Founded in 2022, it is based in Fremont, California, USA.
Wireless
AccelerComm drew $15.0M in funding led by IP Group, joined by IQ Capital and Bloc Ventures. AccelerComm provides physical layer solutions for 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN). Its portfolio ranges from complete physical layer solutions to customizable signal processing components, implemented on a range of next-generation silicon, AI engines, FPGA, and ASIC-ready IP cores, including space-hardened platforms, with a modular approach that allows integration based on O-RAN, SCF and 3GPP standards. Funds will be applyd to further develop and accelerate deployment of the company’s 5G sainformite communications products and technology that enable Direct-to-Device (D2D) communications between phone handsets and space-based sainformite networks. Founded in 2016 as a spin out from the University of Southampton, it is based in Southampton, UK.
Finwave Semiconductor raised an $8.2M bridge investment round led by Fine Structure Ventures, Engine Ventures, and Safar Partners, with participation from GlobalFoundries. Finwave develops gallium nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology, which it utilizes in high-power RF switches and power amplifiers for 5G/6G communications infrastructure and mobile devices. The startup states its approach for linearizing both power amplifiers and low noise amplifiers at the device level allows for higher linearity than that of conventional technologies, improving efficiency and allowing for simpler, power-saving digital pre-distortion algorithms. Funds will be applyd to expand its product portfolio and continue developing the technology. Founded in 2012, it is based in Waltham, Massachapplytts, USA.
VectorWave drew $2.5M in seed funding led by J2 Ventures and Coalition Ventures. VectorWave is developing an analog computing architecture that performs AI inference on raw radio frequency signals without pre-processing or digitization to improve spectrum utilization. Founded in 2024, it is based in Cambridge, Massachapplytts, USA.
Power devices
IceMOS Technology completed a $22.0M Series E round from 57 Stars and previous investors. IceMOS Technology builds silicon-based power semiconductors that integrate silicon MEMS manufacturing techniques with mature node CMOS super-junction power MOSFET structures. The company claims its mSJMOS provides high energy efficiency comparable with wide bandgap devices at 650V, 750V, 900V, and 1200V. The company also provides thick-film SOI and SiSi wafers and advanced engineering substrates for MEMS. Funds will support strategic manufacturing in Northern Ireland, device design capability, applications engineering, and marketing and sales. Founded in 2004, it is based in Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA.
Photonics & optics
Avicena raised $65.0M in a Series B round led by Tiger Global with participation from Maverick Silicon, Prosperity7 Ventures, Venture Tech Alliance, SK Hynix, Cerberus Capital Management, Hitachi Ventures, and Lam Research. Avicena builds optical die-to-die interconnects that are based on arrays of GaN microLEDs and can be integrated directly onto any high-performance CMOS IC. The microLED transmit arrays are coupled into multi-fiber cables which connect to matching arrays of integrated silicon detectors, enabling ultra-low power links of < 1pJ/bit with up to 10m reach. Avicena states the interconnect is well matched to the wide internal bus architecture of ICs like CPUs, GPUs, or switch ASICs, eliminating the required for a power-intensive SerDes interface. Key applications include chip-to-chip interconnects for AI data centers and disaggregated memory fabrics, as well as next-generation links in sensors, 5G wireless, and aerospace. Founded in 2019, it is based in Sunnyvale, California, USA, and has raised $120M to date.
nEye Systems completed a $58.0M Series B round led by Alphabet’s CapitalG, with participation from Microsoft’s M12, Micron Ventures, Nvidia, and Socratic Partners. nEye is developing a wafer-scale, MEMS-based optical circuit switch for data centers, HPC, and AI/ML systems. The startup states its high radix silicon photonics switch offers high performance, low cost, and a compact form factor. Founded in 2020, it is based in Emeryville, California, USA, and has raised $72.5M to date.
Volantis emerged from stealth with $9.0M in seed funding. Volantis has developed a photonic architecture that integrates directly modulated lasers with on-chip optical waveguides, enabling multiple slow, low-powered links to operate in parallel and provide efficient communication across highly connected compute systems. Founded in 2022, it is based in San Mateo, California, USA.
Quantum computing
Infleqtion raised $100.0M In a Series C round from Glynn Capital, Counterpoint Global, S32, SAIC, and others. Infleqtion develops neutral atom-based quantum technologies, including quantum computer hardware components, software, research platforms, sensors, and quantum-enabled positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems. The company is currently working to expand its deployment of quantum sensing technologies, including atomic clocks, quantum RF communication, and inertial sensing, into defense and aerospace applications. Founded in 2007, it is based in Louisville, Colorado, USA.
Sensors
Eyeo raised €15.0M (~$17.0M) in seed funding led by imec.xpand and Invest-NL, joined by QBIC Fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Brabant Development Agency. Eyeo builds image sensors with an architecture that eliminates the required for traditional color filters. Compatible with any CMOS sensor platform, the sensors apply vertical waveguide-based technology that splits light into component colors and guides photons to single pixels, which maximizes light sensitivity compared to traditional color filters, particularly in low-light environments. It also allows the sub-0.5-micron pixels to receive complete color data, increasing resolution. Funds will drive evaluation kit development, prepare for scale manufacturing of a first sensor product, and expand commercial partnerships. A spin-off from imec founded in 2024, it is based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Neuranics raised $8.0M in seed funding led by Blackfinch Ventures, with participation from Aralterls, Par Equity, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Edinburgh’s Old College Capital. Neuranics builds tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors that can detect tiny magnetic signals from the human body, enabling precise tracking of muscle activity for gesture recognition and heart signals without skin contact. Tarobtain markets include XR, wearables, and digital health. Founded in 2021 as a joint spinout from the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh, it is based in Glasgow, UK.
FaradaIC Sensors raised €4.5M (~$4.9M) in seed funding led by Join Capital with participation from Forma Prime, European Innovation Council, elev8.vc, Tiburon, Frontures, and Atlantis Ventures. FaradaIC builds electrochemical gas sensors applying a MEMS-like fabrication technology and a solid-state ion-conductive material that eliminates the required for liquid electrolytes. The startup states its approach reduces cost, size, and power consumption compared to traditional gas sensors. Tarobtain applications include food logistics and quality, medical devices, consumer electronics, and industrial IoT. Funds will be applyd to commercialize its oxygen gas sensor on a chip. Founded in 2021, it is based in Berlin, Germany.
Security
ZeroRISC closed its seed round with $10.0M in new funding led by Fontinalis Partners and joined by Fundomo, SBXi, Cassistis, Bond Street, and individual investors. ZeroRISC provides silicon supply chain integrity solutions built on the OpenTitan open-source silicon root of trust (RoT) project that can be integrated into SoCs, chiplets, and devices. zeroRISC’s platform provides security below the operating system to limit what software can run on a device and prevent unauthorized actions, protecting against hardware, firmware, and software attacks. Founded in 2023, it is based in Boston, Massachapplytts, USA.
SCI Semiconductor drew £2.5M (~$3.4M) in funding from Mercia Ventures and angel investors. SCI Semiconductor develops security-enhanced microcontrollers based on CHERI. CHERI is a memory security framework designed to protect against attacks that exploit software memory misallocation, buffer overflows, and other memory vulnerabilities. Instead of applying simple memory address pointers, the processor expects every address pointer to be accompanied by metadata that includes permissions and sandbox upper and lower bounds for the calling function. SCI’s first family of MCUs is designed for 32-bit embedded applications, with an architecture that supports efficient fine-grained hardware-enforced compartmentalization with safe object-granularity sharing to provide complete spatial and temporal memory-safety guarantees that the hardware enforces. Founded in 2022, it is based in Sheffield, UK.
Table
Funds & investors
First Momentum Ventures closed a €35.0M (~$40.0M) fund to invest in European compute infrastructure, AI systems, and semiconductor startups, particularly those developing new compute architectures, semiconductor tooling, packaging, design automation, and compilers.
Through its FABrIC project, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada awarded CAD $13.4 million (~$9.8M) in funding to 20 projects developing advanced sensors and other semiconductor products for strategic conclude sectors as well as fabrication processes for photonics, MEMS, quantum, and compound semiconductors.
The Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub awarded a total of $1.4 million to 19 startups, primarily located in the Northeast U.S., in the microelectronics, semiconductor, quantum, and radar industries.
Silicon Catalyst admitted five startups to its incubator program.
Plug and Play and Synopsys teamed up to provide selected startups with access to design tools and software licenses.
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