TDS Innovation Raises $4.8M to Build 300mm 2D Semiconductor Tools

TDS Innovation has raised USD 4.8 million (6.3 billion won) in a pre-Series A round to move its 2D semiconductor deposition equipment from the lab toward 300mm wafer production.

LB Investment led the round. IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, IBK Venture Investment and Daejeon Investment Finance joined as new investors. Existing backers Futureplay and Stonebridge Ventures participated in the follow-on. The deal brings TDS Innovation's cumulative funding to USD 7.6 million (10 billion won).

The company builds deposition equipment, process technology and core precursor materials that form 2D semiconductors uniformly on large-area wafers. It develops all three layers of the stack — tools, recipes and materials — as one integrated offering.

Why are investors betting on 0.7nm materials?

A 2D semiconductor is an ultra-thin material roughly 0.7nm thick. It suits high-density chips and 3D stacking, delivering strong electrical properties while cutting power consumption. That combination has made it a leading candidate as a next-generation channel material, particularly as AI adoption drives up computing demand and data center power bills.

There's a catch. To use the material in real chipmaking, manufacturers must repeatedly form uniform thin films on large-area wafers and connect the process reliably to existing semiconductor production lines. That's exactly the gap TDS Innovation is targeting.

The company's deposition solutions specialize in growing 2D semiconductor thin films on its in-house Crystal Layer Deposition (CLD) technology. By developing process recipes and core precursors alongside the equipment itself, it aims to supply everything needed for 2D semiconductor manufacturing as a package.

What will the $4.8M fund?

TDS Innovation plans to spend the new money on full-scale development of production-ready deposition equipment for 300mm wafers — the standard wafer size across the semiconductor industry.

The roadmap has three parts:

• Verify thin-film uniformity and process reproducibility across an entire 300mm wafer, moving beyond the company's existing R&D-scale tools
• Build a manufacturing platform that can later expand into mass-production environments
• Review, in stages and through external evaluation and collaboration, whether the technology can be applied to actual semiconductor manufacturing

That last point matters. The company isn't claiming production readiness yet; it's committing to outside validation before scale-up.

What did the investors say?

Seongin Oh, a director at LB Investment, framed the bet in structural terms. He said: "2D semiconductor materials are a core technology that can overcome the limits of existing silicon semiconductors and change the paradigm of the semiconductor industry. We decided to invest because we expect TDS Innovation's proprietary deposition technology and commercialization capabilities to drive that innovation."

Gibeom Kang, CEO of TDS Innovation, called the round an inflection point. He said: "This investment is an important turning point for extending the 2D semiconductor deposition technology we have built up to real semiconductor manufacturing environments. Through 300mm equipment development and by advancing our process and materials technology, we will raise the maturity of 2D semiconductor manufacturing technology and keep expanding its range of application in actual industrial settings."

The bottom line

A USD 4.8M round is small by semiconductor capital standards, but the target isn't: proving 300mm uniformity and reproducibility is the hurdle between 2D materials staying a research topic and becoming a manufacturable alternative to silicon.