Mapper Lithography, a Netherlands-based chip equipment provider founded in 2000, has gained €80m ($100m) from a consortium including Russian state-backed venture capital fund Rusnano.
Rusnano, a $10bn fund which invests in US and Russian companies so they will set up operations in Russia (Bloomberg Story), will provide half the round.
The remaining €40m is coming from Mapper’s existing shareholders, including ADP Industries, the investment vehicle for Arthur del Prado, co-founder of chip peer ASM International (ASMI), and venture capital firms Parcom and Hoving & Partners, as well as technology suppliers, such as Technolution and DemCon, and also include innovation credits from Dutch state agency AgentschapNL.
Mapper’s other shareholders include Delft University of Technology and VC firms KBC Private Equity and Quest for Growth.
The €80m will build Mapper’s new Matrix machines, which make one chip wafer per hour. Part of Rusnano’s investment will be used to establish a manufacturing site in Russia for Mapper’s lens components.
Dmitriy Lisenkov, managing director at Rusnano, said: “Mapper stands at the very beginning of the semiconductor value chain, so this investment strengthens the synergy among Rusnano’s microelectronic projects.”
Separately, last month, ASM Lithography (ASML, which had been set up as a joint venture between ASMI and Philips before ASMI sold its shares in 1988) sold a fifth of the company to chipmakers Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Intel bought a 15% stake in ASML for €2.5bn and will provide €830m for research and development, while TSMC acquired a 5% stake for €838m and another €276m for ASML’s R&D. South Korea-based conglomerate Samsung Electro is also expected to invest in ASML.
ASML and Mapper Lithography use different technologies – ultraviolet light and parallel electron beams respectively – to map out electronic circuits on silicon wafers.