Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) has invested an undisclosed sum in Voltaix, a manufacturer of semiconductor chemicals.
The corporate venturing unit of South Korea-based conglomerate Samsung has provided growth funding for Voltaix – a manufacturer of chemicals and gasses.
Venture firm MissionPoint invested $10m in the company in 2010, while venture firm Novus Energy Partners invested $9m in the company in 2009, and Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of US-based chip-maker Intel, invested $12.5m in the company in 2008. Voltaix was founded in 1986.
The investment comes just days after SVIC – the global investment arm of Samsung – invested $4m in Carbon Design Systems.
Voltaix manufactures electronic chemicals and gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes worldwide. The company is also a market leader in the supply of deposition precursors for production of advanced photovoltaic cells which are key elements in cost reduction for the next generation of flat panel display, LED, MEMS and other electronic goods.
Dong-Su Kim, SVIC senior investment director, said: “The increasing demand for novel gases and materials in electronics fabrication has attracted our attention. Based on our analysis of the future demand and the players in the space, we found Voltaix to be the leader and are quite excited about our equity investment.”
Dr. Peter Smith, chief executive of Voltaix, who joined the company in November last year, said: “The financing from SVIC will enable us to continue building our worldwide infrastructure and will further accelerate our new product pipeline development activities. We believe our materials innovations will help drive new device architectures and manufacturing technologies to high volume manufacturing.”