Intel, Hermann Hauser, Google investor back Black Semiconductor
Black Semiconductor GmbH (Aachen, Germany), a 2019 startup that develops graphene-based photonic interfaces, has received support from three big names in technology; Intel, Hermann Hauser and, reportedly, Andy Bechtolsheim.
The company has been admitted into the ‘Intel Ignite’ accelerator program that is based in Munich, Germany and which runs for 12 weeks from November 14. The company has also drawn venture capital support from Onsight Ventures (Innsbruck, Austria), a venture capital (VC) company that is advised by Hermann Hauser. Bechtolsheim also participated in the October 2022 venture capital round that raised millions of euros, according to the Deutsche Startups website.
Hauser was a co-founder of Acorn Computers, supported the creation of Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) as a spin-off from Acorn before going on to found VC firm Amadeus Capital Partners. Bechtolsheim was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, its chief hardware designer and was one of the first investors in Google.
Black Semi is developing a ‘back-end-of-line’ photonics manufacturing process that supports on-chip optical signal routing and fiber-to-chip interfaces for chip-to-chip connections. The technology supports bidirectional electro-optic conversion with data transmission rates of up to 10Pbits/s possible, the company claims. At the same time the technology is compatible with CMOS ‘front-end of line’ manufacturing, the firm states.
The company was co-founded by Daniel Schall, CEO, and Sabastian Schall, CFO. Prior to founding Black Semiconductor Daniel Schall has spent 12 years as a researcher and group leader with AMO GmbH (Aachen, Germany), a nanotechnology research and fabrication service provider.
The company has drawn venture capital support from Vsquared Ventures (Munich, Germany); Cambium Capital; Onsight Ventures (Innsbruck, Austria) and Project A Ventures (Berlin, Germany).
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