AirMembrane raises $5.39M to mass-produce graphene chip pellicles
What's the deal? AirMembraneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Tsukuba-based maker of graphene EUV pellicles, has raised US$6.54M in a round led by Global BrainDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The Tokyo venture firm invested through its Global Brain Flagship Fund IX, with the TAKANAWA GATEWAY Global Co-Benefits Fund joining for the first time and the Shinhan-GB FutureFlow Fund returning as a follow-on backer.
What does AirMembrane do? Founded in 2017, it develops and manufactures EUV pellicles — protective films that shield photomasks from particle contamination during chipmaking. The technology, spun out of Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, uses continuous synthesis and automated transfer to form high-quality graphene films without defects.
Why now? Demand for advanced semiconductors is climbing as AI and autonomous driving scale up, pushing chipmakers toward finer circuit patterns and next-generation High-NA EUV lithography. Pellicles are a known bottleneck: making one that balances high transmittance, heat dissipation, chemical stability, and mechanical strength remains a hard engineering problem.
What's the money for? AirMembrane plans to build manufacturing capacity and hire engineers and business staff ahead of pilot production and the launch of mass production lines. Global Brain said it backed the company for its proprietary process, the "globally expanding market potential" for EUV components, and a management team with "a concrete roadmap toward the launch of mass production lines."
What came before? Global Brain first invested through its Shinhan-GB fund in August 2024. AirMembrane has since drawn additional backing from other VC firms and was selected for a NEDO deep-tech support program, signaling public and private interest in its approach.
The signal: This is an early, modest financing step in a technically demanding corner of semiconductor materials — not a market breakthrough. The stated yield and performance gains remain development goals, but the continued investor interest reflects a strategic push to localize critical chipmaking inputs as EUV tooling advances.
Read more: globalbrains.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
