Nearfield Instruments receives €17.5 million investment from Invest-NL and Innovation Industries
Nearfield Instruments (NFI), the leading semiconductor scanning probe metrology equipment scale-up, today announced that it has raised €17.5 million as part of its Series B funding round. Dutch impact investor Invest-NL contributes € 10,5 million. The other investor is the existing shareholder Innovation Industries, with an investment of € 7 million.
This current funding round supports Nearfield Instruments to intensify the collaboration with its leading customers and take the necessary next steps in scaling up the organization to develop new metrology technologies, attract top tech talents, and expand their infrastructure.
Hamed Sadeghian (CEO of Nearfield Instruments) on the investments of Invest-NL and Innovation Industries: “As a fast-growing company, we are pleased with this addition to the Series B financing round. We will further strengthen our team with top high-tech talent and increase our production capacity. We can rapidly grow Nearfield Instruments, amongst others by bringing our second product for subsurface metrology to the market, being non-destructive subsurface nano-scale metrology”. He adds: “We happily welcome Invest-NL as a new partner. Their support will further strengthen the impact we will make in the semiconductor metrology market”.
Wouter Bos (CEO Invest-NL) is enthusiastic about the investment for various reasons: “The Dutch semiconductor industry is one of the absolute best in the world. With this investment, Invest-NL is committed to Nearfield Instruments for the long term. It underlines our commitment to the mission that, the Netherlands will continue to be a leader in innovation in the future. In addition, I am pleased that this Deep Tech investment was partly realized with the use of the “InnovFin SME Guarantee Facility” that we recently agreed with the European Investment Fund (EIF). It illustrates how we offer innovative Dutch scale-ups better access to European investment funds”.
Nard Sintenie (General Partner at Innovation Industries) adds: “Nearfield Instruments has developed very well since its inception in 2016 and has reached a significant technical and commercial milestone with the delivery of its first system at the end of 2020. As a proud investor and shareholder from the very beginning, we are once again supporting Nearfield Instruments in this round, enabling further upscaling. We are convinced that Nearfield Instruments will be at the forefront of metrology for the global semiconductor industry, and we welcome Invest-NL as a co-investor.”
About Invest-NL
Invest-NL invests as an impact investor in companies and projects that make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative. The focus is on the carbon-neutral and circular economy and innovative, fast-growing companies (scale-ups). Invest-NL finances and advises innovative entrepreneurs according to the principle “impact is the goal, return the means”. Invest-NL always works together with other financiers and is the Dutch partner for European investment institutions. Invest-NL employs 60 employees from the Amsterdam office. For more information, go to www.invest-nl.nl
About Nearfield Instruments
Nearfield Instruments is a high-tech scale-up active in the semiconductor industry. The company develops and delivers ground-breaking process control metrology solutions that are able to measure essential 3D nanostructures in a non-destructive manner during the manufacturing process of microchips. Examples of microchips are memory and logic processors for laptops, smartphones, data centers, etc. Measuring these structures is essential to be able to produce good chips.
Nearfield Instruments’ customers are global microchip manufacturers. The technique developed by Nearfield Instruments is based on so-called “Scanning Probe Microscopy” (SPM), which scans the surface in three dimensions with an atomically sharp tip. Nearfield Instruments has improved and refined SPM to achieve significant measurement speeds, and non-destructively measure complex 3D structures, both on surface (product ‘QUADRA’) and below surface (product ‘SONARA’). Other metrology technologies (which often work based on electrons or light (photons)) cannot measure the very smallest 3D nanostructures precisely or quickly enough non-destructively.
Nearfield Instruments is uniquely positioned and has the ambition to grow into a world-leading semiconductor metrology equipment supplier. Nearfield Instruments cooperates closely with the excellently developed high-tech ecosystem in the Netherlands. The company operates from Rotterdam (head office) and Eindhoven (High Tech Campus). Currently, it employs 103 employees.
About Innovation Industries
Innovation Industries is a leading Dutch venture capital company that focuses on high-tech, medical technology, and agrifood technology companies. In addition to financial support, Innovation Industries offers operational and strategic support to position optimally the companies in its portfolio for success. Innovation Industries has more than € 250 million in investments under its management and invests in all phases of growth and development. More information: www.innovationindustries.com
Media contacts
Invest-NL
Paul Hartogsveld, +31 (0) 6 11589127, paul.hartogsveld@invest-nl.nl
Nearfield Instruments
Medhat Othman, +31 (0) 6 13644896, medhat.othman@nearfieldinstruments.com
Innovation Industries
Nard Sintenie, +31 (0) 6 10 01 10 72, ns@innovationindustries.com