Poro Technologies announces £1.5m seed funding

May 13, 2020

Poro Technologies (Porotech), the Gallium Nitride (GaN) material technology developer and a recent spin-out from the University of Cambridge, has closed a £1.5 million seed round investment to develop a pilot plant in Cambridge and its first major products.

The seed round was co-led by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, and IQ Capital Partners, with the additional participation of Martlet Capital and a syndicate of angel investors from Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.

Porotech focuses on the development of high performance and energy efficient wide-bandgap compound GaN semiconductors by applying cutting-edge material technologies and solutions to unleash the full potential of GaN to revolutionise the electronics industry.

Porotech’s unique production process allows the controlled creation of a new class of porous GaN semiconductor materials and structures, which provide enhanced functionality.

It enables Porotech to engineer a wide range of material properties, such as optical, mechanical, thermal and electrical, and consequently offers an entirely new material platform for semiconductor devices to be built upon.

With Porotech’s process and product IP portfolio, scale-up and instrumentation solutions, know-how and interdisciplinary expertise in semiconductor materials and devices, and materials chemistry, its licensing business model (involving proving by making) is to commercialise its unique material platform technology and device solutions in conjunction with its partners and foundry network.

Professor Rachel Oliver, CSO and Co-Founder of Porotech and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride at the University of Cambridge, said: “I am really excited about the potential of Porotech’s new porous gallium nitride materials and processes. Gallium nitride is a material poised to have impact across electronics and optoelectronics—from efficient power transistors to quantum devices—and the introduction of porous architectures can extend its capability in all these realms”.

Dr Tongtong Zhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Porotech, said: “Porotech is at the forefront of this particular revolution, where we have developed the first production technique that allows the integration of porous GaN in tailored forms to significantly increase performance of real-world electronic and optoelectronic devices and applications.”

Press release originally published here.