AlixLabs secures €15 million in Series A funding.

      AlixLabs, a semiconductor process startup located in Lund, Sweden, known for its Atomic Pitch Splitting (APS™) technology, has successfully completed its €15 million Series A funding round, bolstered by a strategic investment from Finnish firm Stephen Industries. The company aims to initiate beta testing with chip manufacturers in 2026, with an objective to achieve manufacturing deployment in 2027.

      The funding round consisted of two phases: an initial €14.1 million close announced in November 2025, followed by a final investment from Stephen Industries in the first quarter of 2026, bringing the total to €15 million. AlixLabs is focusing on developing its proprietary Atomic Layer Etching technology, particularly its APS™ platform, which is designed to facilitate more accurate and significantly cost-effective advanced chip manufacturing.

      The strategic aspect of the investment from Stephen Industries is linked to its chairman and president, Kustaa Poutiainen, whose previous experience at Picosun, a Finnish company specializing in Atomic Layer Deposition equipment, aligns directly with AlixLabs’ technological focus. The two processes, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE), are interrelated, with ALD being used for material deposition at the atomic level and ALE for its precision removal.

      Poutiainen's expertise in scaling niche atomic-layer techniques to industry standards is regarded by AlixLabs CEO Jonas Sundqvist as "particularly valuable" as the company transitions from development to broader commercialization of its APS™ platform. The technology being commercialized by AlixLabs addresses a critical and high-cost issue in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

      As chip designs grow increasingly complex, traditional methods of forming extremely fine patterns, such as multi-patterning—which involves repeated cycles of lithography and etching—become both excessively costly and energy-intensive. While EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography can minimize the number of patterning steps needed, the equipment is extremely expensive, costing over $400 million each, and necessitates specialized support infrastructure.

      In contrast, APS™ employs atomic-precision etching to divide a single coarser pattern into two finer ones, thereby decreasing the reliance on both multi-patterning and EUV tools. The initial tranche of the Series A in November 2025 was led by three returning investors—Navigare Ventures, Industrifonden, and FORWARD.one—alongside new investors STOAF, a Swedish institutional fund, and Global Brain, a Japanese venture capital firm focused on semiconductor startups.

      Global Brain’s involvement enhances AlixLabs' presence within the Japanese semiconductor market, where customers and equipment buyers are actively engaged. Other investors in the company's cap table include LU Holding (the investment arm of Lund University), Almi Invest, Polynom Invest, and the Nylander family.

      Recently, AlixLabs signed a Memorandum of Understanding with VDL ETG Projects, a Dutch company specializing in precision equipment for high-tech manufacturing, to further industrialize its APS™ patterning technology. The company also received notice of patent allowance in Taiwan for a selective etching nanostructures patent in February 2026 and achieved EU trademark registration for “Power ALE”, a modification of its etching process.

      The patent allowance in Taiwan holds strategic importance since TSMC and other significant foundries operate there, making intellectual property protection in that region crucial for commercialization. AlixLabs is targeting beta testing of APS™ with key customers to commence in 2026, with full manufacturing implementation planned for 2027. The funds raised in the €15 million round will be directed towards expanding R&D and production capabilities in Lund and the Netherlands, strengthening collaborations with foundry partners, and accelerating the industrial rollout of APS™.

      This initiative is part of a larger effort by European institutions and investors to cultivate European-owned semiconductor process technologies, especially given the growing concerns regarding dependence on supply chains from Asia and the US.