{"id":1359,"date":"2026-02-11T20:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/1359\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:49:13","slug":"eth-zurich-spinout-chiral-bags-12m-to-scale-robotic-platform-for-graphene-chip-integration-tfn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/1359\/","title":{"rendered":"ETH Zurich spinout Chiral bags $12M to scale robotic platform for graphene chip integration \u2014 TFN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swiss deeptech startup Chiral has secured $12 million in seed funding to commercialise its robotic platform designed for wafer-scale integration of nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. The round was led by Crane Venture Partners<\/a>, with participation from Quantonation<\/a>, HCVC<\/a>, and Founderful<\/a>, as well as public funding from Innosuisse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With fresh capital, Chiral plans to enhance its automation capabilities, increase throughput, and demonstrate system reliability across real-world industrial environments. The goal is to enable companies to incorporate nanomaterials as seamlessly as they incorporate silicon today.<\/p>\n

Why are nanomaterials the next frontier?<\/p>\n

As chipmakers hit the physical and cost limits of silicon defined by Moore\u2019s Law, alternative materials are gaining momentum. Carbon nanotubes and 2D materials, such as graphene, promise significant improvements in performance and energy efficiency. Major players like TSMC already include them in their long-term technology roadmaps.<\/p>\n

But despite strong research-lab results, commercial adoption has stalled. The issue is related to manufacturing. Existing processes struggle with precision, consistency, and contamination. Without scalable integration methods, the most promising nanomaterials can\u2019t make the leap from single-device prototypes to wafer-level production.<\/p>\n

Chiral\u2019s robotic answer to a decades-old problem<\/p>\n

Chiral was built specifically to overcome that bottleneck. Founded in 2023 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich and Empa, the company blends deep scientific expertise with practical engineering execution. Its work represents one of the clearest pathways toward chips that outperform the limits of today\u2019s silicon-based technology.<\/p>\n

Its platform is the first robotic system engineered for the selective, contamination-free placement of nanomaterials onto silicon wafers. It brings together automation, high-precision mechanics, and intelligent process control to deliver a step-change in how these materials can be handled.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional deposition or transfer methods, Chiral\u2019s approach allows targeted placement rather than blanket application. <\/p>\n

In just two years since its pre-seed round, the team has developed its first commercial equipment system and helped early customers accelerate the development of nanomaterial-based devices.<\/p>\n

Paving the way for industrial-scale adoption<\/p>\n

Nanomaterials are rapidly becoming foundational to post-silicon electronics, from ultra-efficient processors to emerging quantum systems. By making integration scalable, Chiral aims to transform them from research curiosities into everyday manufacturing tools.<\/p>\n

The recent funding marks a step toward a future where next-generation chips are built from materials once considered impossible to manufacture at scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cNanomaterials have shown outstanding performance in research for years, but without scalable and controllable manufacturing, their impact remains limited,\u201d said Seoho Jung<\/a>, CEO at Chiral. \u201cChiral has the necessary capabilities that can turn material-level breakthroughs into an industrial reality. Our customers will soon announce results that demonstrate how Chiral\u2019s technology has advanced their device performance. In parallel, we are moving from development into deployment, with our first commercial systems being installed at customer sites this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next foundational shift in computing won\u2019t come from materials alone; it will come from making those materials work for real systems and real customers. Chiral brings that level of engineering discipline to nanomaterials, and that\u2019s why we believe they have an important role to play in what comes after silicon,\u201d said Krishna Visvanathan<\/a>, Co-founder and Partner at Crane Venture Partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swiss deeptech startup Chiral has secured $12 million in seed funding to commercialise its robotic platform designed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1749,197,1750,1202,1751,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-1359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-deeptech","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-funding","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-startups","13":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}