Germany-based advanced memory technology provider Ferroelectric Memory (FMC) has closed a $20m series B round co-led by M Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Merck Group.
The round was co-led by venture capital fund Imec.xpand and was also backed by Robert Bosch Venture Capital and TEL Venture Capital – on behalf of industrial equipment maker Robert Bosch and Tokyo Electron – as well as fellow semiconductor producer SK Hynix and eCapital.
FMC has developed ferroelectric hafnium oxide memory technology for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors used in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet-of-things (IoT) products and data centres.
The cash will support international expansion, notably into the US and Asian markets, and the growth of headcount at the company’s headquarters.
High-Tech Gründerfonds provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding for FMC in 2017 and joined eCapital in a $5.4m series A round the following year.
Ali Pourkeramati, FMC’s chief executive, said: “We have strong interest from customers and development partners for our advantages in fast access, program and erase speed, best-in-class ultra-low energy budget, ease-of-integration into existing manufacturing processes, and low manufacturing costs.
“This funding will speed up the commercialisation of our ferroelectric field-effect transistor and capacitor technology into exponentially increasing markets in the AI, IoT, embedded memory and high-performance stand-alone data centre sectors.”
