Halo Industries, a creator of a laser manufacturing technology platform for the semiconductor industry, announced it raised up to $80 million in its oversubscribed Series B funding round.
This funding round – which was led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) with participation from 8VC and SAIC – will help Halo Industries scale the commercialization and reach of its technology and advance its goal to establish the new gold-standard of silicon carbide substrate production.
Halo Industries’ proprietary laser-based tools and processing technologies enable efficient, precise and high-quality manufacturing that minimizes the cost, waste, and environmental impact associated with traditional manufacturing methods. And the company manufactures several materials used for semiconductor production, including silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, which serve as the building block of efficient high voltage power electronics.
Utilizing SiC wafers for power devices enables greater power output and system performance while being smaller, lighter, and more robust than traditional materials. SiC is a hard and brittle material that is challenging to cut without losing meaningful amounts and Halo Industries’ proprietary laser-based slicing tools significantly increase yield and quality of SiC while minimizing waste and production cost.
Halo Industries’ laser manufacturing technologies could be broadly applied to a diverse set of use cases and materials. And the company’s technologies have been demonstrated to work on various advanced materials such as silicon, diamond, sapphire, lithium tantalate, gallium nitride, and many others.
KEY QUOTES:
“Amid the explosive growth in demand for next-generation power electronics with improved energy efficiency, our laser-based manufacturing tools and SiC production are critical components for maintaining momentum in clean tech development. We are incredibly grateful to have savvy partners who recognize the differentiated value of our innovative laser technologies and support our rapid growth. This financing will serve as the foundation for our future strategic engagements where our innovations can reshape market economics as well as enable entirely new device architectures and functionalities.”
– Andrei Iancu, Halo Industries founder and CEO
“Semiconductors are a critical technology area for the U.S. to remain a global leader in, and Halo Industries plays a pivotal role by offering tools that solve some of the biggest pain points in the industry. Halo Industries allows U.S. companies to onshore manufacturing by competing on innovation, efficiency and cost, creating a durable advantage that is additive to recent industrial policies and eases supply chain challenges. We see a bright future for Halo Industries to foster innovation across industries and diverse applications, from renewable energy and electric vehicles to telecommunications, grid infrastructure, and defense customer bases.”
– Peter Tague, Managing Partner of USIT
