Metara secures $11.5 million in new financing

The round was led by existing investors VantagePoint Venture Partners and Cipio Partners. Compass Venture Partners and Merifin Capital NV also participated. The new financing will be used to fund the market expansion phase for Metara's metrology technology. Throughout the last 12 months, Metara's SENTRY technology has been tapped by several leading semiconductor manufacturers as a radical new option for real-time, non-invasive characterization of the process chemistries used to produce their most advanced devices. The SENTRY Chemical Composition Metrology (CCM) system monitors bath integrity for advanced copper electroplating and cobalt processes, while the SENTRY Trace Contamination Metrology (TCM) system maintains process bath purity by identifying and quantifying metallic and organic contaminants. Customers are deploying the tools to optimize results in key manufacturing steps and dramatically increase their overall chemical process efficiency. “This funding comes at a pivotal time for the company,” said David Fries, managing director of VantagePoint. “In the last year, Metara has strengthened its management team and done an extraordinary job of turning a complex semiconductor processing technology into a reliable, production-worthy metrology tool for optimum process chemistry yields. Now, the priority is to build a strong global service infrastructure to support the anticipated sales trajectory and meet exacting customer requirements. ”