Nexstrom raises $12 million seed round to scale 2D semiconductor manufacturing

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Nexstrom $12M seed for 2D semiconductors

Highlights

Nexstrom raised a $12 million seed round, bringing total funding to $15 million, with backing from Xora Innovation, Foothill Ventures, and SEEDS.
The company’s North Star equipment targets wafer-scale 2D TMD chip production on 300mm wafers and is being tested by unnamed industry partners.
Nexstrom aims for commercial production readiness between 2030 and 2035, using new capital for process improvement, team growth, and customer qualification programs.

Funding backs wafer-scale 2D chip production

As reported by TechCrunch, Nexstrom said on Tuesday it raised a $12 million seed round from investors including Xora Innovation, Foothill Ventures and SEEDS. The startup says it has now raised $15 million in total.

The company is developing equipment and processes to grow transition-metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs, directly on chip wafers. Its product, North Star, is designed to grow the materials on 300mm, 12-inch wafers used in commercial chipmaking.

Nexstrom says it does not plan to compete directly with major chipmakers such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel, and instead wants to sell its technology to them or work with them as partners. The company says some industry players are already testing samples of its wafers and materials, although it declines to identify them.

Commercial path faces scale and quality hurdles

The company is targeting a difficult part of the semiconductor supply chain, producing 2D materials at scale for manufacturing use. Its technology is based in part on research by co-founder and chief scientist Lance Li, who previously led research on post-silicon electronics at TSMC and has worked on 2D materials since 2012.

Nexstrom CEO Phoebe Tan told TechCrunch the current focus is on meeting material quality requirements set by industry partners. She says the company has proven material results on wafers using its newly installed 12-inch system, has scaled systematically from 2 inches to 6 inches, and is aiming to complete its 8-inch milestones by the end of October.

Nexstrom plans to use the new funding to further develop its technology and move its equipment closer to commercial production. Tan says the capital will support better process control and measurement, team expansion and qualification programs with potential customers, while the company expects its equipment to be ready for commercial production between 2030 and 2035.

Cross-border U.S.–China investment links in AI and semiconductors remain active despite tighter export controls and investment restrictions. Our earlier article noted that U.S. banks still help finance Chinese tech listings and that Chinese or Hong Kong-linked capital continues to show up in U.S. AI funding rounds, creating both a stabilizing incentive and a growing political risk. It also highlighted how these financial ties framed the lead-up to U.S.–China talks, where an AI dialogue was discussed even as expectations for a major breakthrough stayed low.

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