Chiral lands $12M seed to push nanomaterials into chip fabs
Swiss deeptech startup Chiral, a spinout of ETH Zurich and Empa, has raised $12 million in seed funding to commercialize a robotic platform aimed at wafer-scale integration of nanomaterials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes.
The round was led by Crane Venture Partners with participation from Quantonation, HCVC, and Founderful, alongside public support from Innosuisse. The company said the new capital will be used to strengthen automation, boost throughput, and validate reliability in industrial environments as it moves from development into deployment.
Why nanomaterials matter now
As semiconductor manufacturers approach the physical and economic limits of silicon scaling associated with Moore’s Law, alternative materials are increasingly viewed as a path to higher performance and improved energy efficiency. TSMC and other major chipmakers have referenced these materials in long-term roadmaps, but adoption has lagged despite strong research results.
The core challenge is manufacturing: achieving the precision, consistency, and contamination control required to transition from single-device demonstrations to wafer-level production.
Chiral’s approach: selective placement at wafer scale
Founded in 2023, Chiral is building what it describes as the first robotic system engineered for selective, contamination-free placement of nanomaterials onto silicon wafers. The platform combines high-precision mechanics, automation, and intelligent process control to enable targeted placement rather than blanket deposition or transfer.
“Nanomaterials have shown outstanding performance in research for years, but without scalable and controllable manufacturing, their impact remains limited,” said Seoho Jung, CEO of Chiral. He added that the company expects customers to soon share results demonstrating performance gains enabled by the platform, with first commercial systems scheduled for installation at customer sites this year.
Krishna Visvanathan, co-founder and partner at Crane Venture Partners, said the next shift in computing will depend on translating materials advances into deployable systems for real customers.
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