Hprobe, a provider of semiconductor Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) for magnetic devices, today announced the completion of a new funding round driven by international investors, providing an exceptional depth of expertise, a global ecosystem of partnerships and the endorsement of industry market leaders. The company has raised more than 2 million euros to support its strong international development in the field of spintronics based devices testing, such as MRAMs (Magnetic Random Access Memories) and TMR (Tunnel Magneto Resistance) sensors.
“This investment from major investment and semiconductor firms re-enforces Hprobe’s capability to become the leader of magnetic ATE. It will allow us to develop and strengthen the global sales team, create subsidiaries in target countries, and develop our next generation of magnetic generators, therein providing higher magnetic fields and shorter test times. We are delighted with the response from our customers and the support from our investors and look forward to continued growth. We couldn’t have asked for better partners sharing our vision to continue scaling Hprobe,” said Laurent Lebrun, CEO of Hprobe.
The new investment was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), a public-private venture capital investment firm based in Germany focused on high potential high-tech start-ups. The round also includes investments from ITIC, a Taiwanese venture capital firm, subsidiary of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) bringing a depth of tech expertise and a global ecosystem of partnerships with world-class foundries. Additional investors include TEL Venture Capital which strives to leverage the capabilities of its parent Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL)— the world’s leading company of semiconductor production equipment including industrial automatic probers, which are used on the backbone of Hprobe tools. TEL will put its sales network at the service of Hprobe development.
The new round of financing also includes BNP Paribas Développement, that specializes in Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) development, and the round was coordinated by SE13 Advisors, a French independent advisory firm in Venture & Private Equity offering strategic and financial advice to start-ups.
Christian Ziach, Investment Manager at HTGF: “With its highly experienced team, Hprobe has developed competitive testers that will help foundries around the world to produce STT-MRAMs (Spin Transfer Torque MRAMs) on an industrial scale.”
Cinnie Huang, Investment Manager at ITIC: “We are excited about Hprobe’s potential in transforming the industrial process in semiconductor and electronics.” Hans Tai, President at ITIC, who is part of Hprobe’s supervisory board added, “Hprobe’s technology ties in very well in our industry and we look forward to a tighter collaboration with our industrial partners.”
Kay Enjoji, President at TEL Venture Capital: “TEL Venture has chosen Hprobe now that MRAM is moving into mass production and has evidence of field use with innovative methods. TEL can leverage business synergies with Hprobe.”
BNP Paribas Développement: “BNP Paribas Developpement is very excited to support Hprobe in this next phase of growth along with international investors. Thanks to its breakthrough magnetic testing technology, Hprobe is uniquely positioned, having already convinced blue chip industrial buyers, generating great momentum in the semiconductor industry with an excellent mix of expertise amongst the team.”