QD raises €91 million to scale next-generation chip inspection

German startup QuantumDiamonds (QD) GmbH has announced the closing of an EUR 91 million funding round to scale production of its quantum-based semiconductor inspection technology. The financing combines an EUR 15 million equity round led by World Fund with EUR 76 million in non-dilutive funding approved at the EU level under the European Chips Act, the company said.

“This is a major step in bringing quantum sensing into fabs worldwide,” said Kevin Berghoff, CEO and co-founder of QuantumDiamonds. “The response from leading chipmakers has been clear: they see our technology as essential for solving yield challenges that today’s systems can’t address. With deployments now live in the US and Taiwan and serial production ramping up in Munich, Europe isn’t just participating in the next chip era, it’s helping define it.”

The non-dilutive funding is jointly provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Free State of Bavaria. The EUR 15 million equity round led by World Fund drew significant participation from Bayern Kapital, alongside QD’s existing investors IQ Capital, Earlybird, First Momentum, UnternehmerTUM, Creator Fund, Onsight Ventures, and angel investors.

Founded in 2022 as a spin-out of the Technical University of Munich, the company will use the funding to deliver lab systems to leading chipmakers and advance wafer-level capabilities for high-throughput fab inspection, QD said.  

“QD can become Europe’s next ASML: a first-of-a-kind technology, built and scaled here, in a $104 billion equipment market that the entire AI economy depends on,”  said Daria Saharova, Managing Partner at World Fund. “Backing companies like QD is how Europe stops buying its technological future from others and starts building the leverage to shape its own.”

“Since our initial seed investment in late 2023, the pace of technical progress at QD has been exceptional,” said Mason Sinclair, Partner at IQ Capital. “They’ve executed rapidly, assembled a world-class technical team, and built strong partnerships across the chip ecosystem. The technology is strongly resonating, and we’re proud to continue backing their journey.”