Dutch semiconductor startup Invisix, founded by ASML alumni, has closed a \u20ac20 million seed round.<\/p>\n
The cash injection was led by Hitachi Ventures and will be used to scale up x-ray technology to spot errors in the manufacturing of semiconductors.<\/p>\n
Building on a decade of ASML research, co-founder and CEO Christina Porter says that her company\u2019s technology is unusually de-risked for its stage.<\/p>\n
Dutch semiconductor startup Invisix, founded by ASML alumni, has closed a \u20ac20 million seed round led by Hitachi Ventures.<\/p>\n
Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and an undisclosed tier-1 chip manufacturer also participated in the round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Invisix was co-founded by Christina Porter<\/a>, now CEO, and Sietse van der Post<\/a>, now CTO, who are both PhD physicists and worked at ASML. The company is developing technology to spot errors in the manufacturing of semiconductors, the same fabs producing high-performance silicon that underpins the AI boom.<\/p>\n Chips are becoming more three-dimensional and nanoscale as AI workloads demand greater hardware complexity. It means that the chip manufacturing process needs to evolve.\u00a0<\/p>\n Invisix likens modern chips to tiny skyscrapers. Engineers stack thin layers on top of each other and each one needs to be almost perfectly shaped and positioned to work. Before adding the next floor, the previous floor needs to be correct. If one tiny feature is in the wrong place, the entire wafer could be wasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the optical tools used to see inside a semiconductor\u2019s structure and measure these placements are no longer fit for purpose. When optical tools fall short, manufacturers tend to use slower and destructive alternatives such as cutting the wafer open to assess the placement of features. This destroys the sample, and can only be done on a fraction of wafers.<\/p>\n In contrast Invisix\u2019s technology fires an intense and ultra-short laser pulse at a gas, known as High Harmonic Generation (HHG), which causes the atoms to release soft x-rays. Those x-rays reach the chip\u2019s buried layers and provide data on what\u2019s inside. The company\u2019s software then decodes that signal to build a precise 3D picture of the structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n The underlying HHG physics earned Professor Anne L\u2019Huillier of Lund University a Nobel Prize in 2023.<\/p>\n In all, it means chipmakers can better ensure that their chips will work by identifying those that won\u2019t work more quickly. Invisix is specifically targeting advanced logic and memory chipmakers as customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Invisix\u2019s competitors include KLA, Nova, and Onto, which are the main companies doing optical measurement today. \u201cNobody yet has a soft x-ray metrology tool on the market,\u201d Porter tells Tech Funding News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dutch semiconductor dominance<\/p>\n Invisix has licensed a decade\u2019s worth of soft x-ray development from Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML, giving it \u201ca level of technical de-risking that is unusual for a seed-stage hardware company and gives our customers a faster path to deployment,\u201d Porter says.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CEO could not comment further on the licensing deal with ASML, also a Dutch company. ASM International (ASMI), BESI (BE Semiconductor Industries), and Nexperia are also home in the Netherlands. The country \u201chas a strong history of semiconductor hardware manufacturing and an impressive ecosystem to support it,\u201d Porter says.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, ASML was initially a Philips and ASMI partnership, while upstream suppliers such as NTS, VDL, Settels Savenije, IBS Precision Engineering and Sioux are based in the same area, Porter says, crediting the country\u2019s universities for some of this success<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Eindhoven area has become something of a \u2018Silicon Valley\u2019; drawing a lot of strong, international technical talent in engineering, physics, etc,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe decided to build Invisix in Eindhoven first and foremost because this is where our team is located, and we wanted continuity, but that continuity is also supported by our knowledgeable supply chain in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInvisix is one of Europe\u2019s most promising semiconductor companies: they unlock a major bottleneck for manufacturing advanced chips that power AI training and inference. The technology is de-risked, the market is moving fast, and we\u2019re thrilled to back them as they scale,\u201d says Clara Ricard<\/a>, partner at Transition Ventures, who notes the excitement of seeing talent come out of ASML and build their own companies. Transition just raised a $150 million fund to back AI infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Invisix will use the fresh funds to develop its first shippable system, though Porter would not disclose the exact timing, and scale customer demonstrations. It has a current team of 17 full-time employees, and will grow towards the second half of the year.<\/p>\n On diversity, Porter acknowledges operating in a traditionally male-dominated field. It currently has two female board members and staff from nine countries. \u201cWe are deeply committed to creating an inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds,\u201d she says, adding that diverse leadership is central to that goal.<\/p>\n