Making innovation possible
Black Semiconductor is realizing mass production of photonics on electronics
Making innovation possible
Black Semiconductor is realizing mass production of photonics on electronics
Our story
Welcome to Black Semiconductor, a company driven by a simple yet powerful vision: to leverage the potential of photonics and graphene in semiconductor technology. Founded in 2021, our roots trace back to Dr.-Ing. Daniel Schall’s decade-long research in microelectronics.
The idea that will redefine the semiconductor landscape was almost ten years in the making when he found Black Semicondcutor with his brother Sebastian Schall, contributing his vast background in entrepreneurship and software development. Together, they form the driving force behind Black Semiconductor.
Our collective mission is to spearhead graphene research and translate it into practical applications for innovation-driven industries.
Since 2022, Dr. Cedric Huyghebaert completes our leadership team as the head of our R&D division. With 22 years of experience in nano applications research at IMEC, the world’s leading research center in nanoelectronics, Cedric brings a wealth of knowledge and technical expertise to our company.
In just one year, Black Semiconductor has grown exponentially, counting a team of over 25 talented individuals in 2023. Our collective mission is to spearhead graphene research and translate it into practical applications for innovation-driven industries.
Join us on our journey as we unlock the power of graphene for photonics and shape the future of semiconductors.
Our groundbreaking technology enables fabricating photonics directly on the back end of any electronic circuit, which is impossible with the established technology.
This is huge! We are excited about the growing European semiconductor ecosystem in breakthrough technologies, as we are also ramping up our manufacturing capability in Germany.
Management
As a researcher, Daniel has been driving improvements in the energy efficiency and performance of chip technology for over ten years.
As an entrepreneur, inventor and manager of Black Semiconductor, he has set out to push the boundaries of the scaling strategy in the semiconductor industry.
Dr.-Ing. Daniel Schall
Founder and CEO
Together with his 10+ years of sales experience, Sebastian uniquely bundles the understanding of customers and business processes. With his background in software development and integration, we at Black Semiconductor are building the administration of the future, digital, fully integrated and intuitive for our employees to use.
Sebastian Schall
Founder and CFO
As a leading expert in nano-applications and materials engineering, Cedric is a key contributor to the innovation of graphene and graphene-related materials for functional applications.
He is one of the few global experts in 2D materials and their integration into 300 mm lines with more than 20 years of management experience at IMEC.
Dr. Cedric Huyghebaert
CTO
Advisory Board
Seasoned Executive with 30 years of Industry experience (INTEL) spanning logic and memory semiconductors. Drove business growth across client, server and storage market segments. Strong strategic leader that has defined and set the direction for business units. Extensive experience engaging with Customers. Built and led diverse teams that grew revenue through product differentiation, creating new businesses and new business models. Accomplished external speaker, and thought leader for the storage industry.
Bill Leszinske
Herbert is a founding partner at Vsquared Ventures. He was also part of the founding team of the predecessor fund Vito Ventures. Prior to working in the venture capital industry Herbert was a researcher with the LadHyX at École Polytechnique in Paris, the Large Graphs and Networks Group at UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, and the Information-Oriented Control Group at TUM in Munich. He is trained in mechanical and aerospace engineering and an alumnus of the technology management program at the CDTM in Munich.
Herbert Mangesius
Uwe Horstmann is a General Partner and co-founded Project A in 2012. Before co-founding Project A, Uwe was active at Rocket Internet from the company’s founding in 2007, as one of the first staff members and a managing director. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz (Germany) and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Stuttgart (Germany).
Uwe Horstmann
He has more than 20 years experience in the global photonics and optical communications industry. He was co-founder and CEO of u2t Photonics AG, a Berlin based technology spin-off of Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institut. In this role he was responsible for the active and passive side of international mergers and acquisitions and actively directed the company’s direction in the field of photonic integrated circuits. Now he is aiming to consult on photonics technologies using his extensive network in this global industry.
Andreas Umbach
Chairman Advisory Board
These investors make our graphene-based technology possible
Based in Europe’s deep tech hub Munich, Vsquared Ventures is backing entrepreneurs and startups that solve some of today’s and tomorrow’s most pressing problems by engineering seemingly impossible breakthrough solutions. Vsquared Ventures identifies and funds tech-driven companies with the potential to become global leaders in the biggest existing markets or create entirely new industries. Vsquared’s portfolio includes companies such as Isar Aerospace, IQM Quantum Computers, Zama.ai, Customcells, and Group14. By forming alliances with key players from industry, science, finance, and the global startup ecosystem, Vsquared Ventures enables founders to push for game-changing innovations for a better future.
Graphene, a European material, for the first time allows the building of a complete photonics platform that integrates flexibly with any electronics without altering existing processes in the chip industry. With that, graphene photonics enables novel chip architectures and brings to life novel scaling principles, so that Black Semi can enable all industries where high-end data requirements are profound in achieving competitive advantages.
Cambium Capital invests in early-stage venture companies with a focus on the development of advanced compute capabilities to solve high-value problems in industries including pharma, finance, automotive / aerospace and advanced materials. Cambium’s portfolio companies enable technologies like machine learning, autonomous driving, cloud computing, internet of things and 5G/6G networks. Cambium’s partners have been entrepreneurs and investors in the advanced computation sector facing these challenges for decades and have closely tracked this emerging opportunity, identifying now as an inflection point for investing in the space.
We believe the strength of the Black Semiconductor founding team, their long history of innovation using graphene photonics, and deep portfolio of intellectual property will lead to groundbreaking advancements in microprocessor performance.
OnsightVentures, with Hermann Hauser, invests in deep tech startups that develop critical technologies and contribute to technological sovereignty in Europe. Black Semiconductor, with its chip technology, is a best practice example with the potential to set new standards in photonics.
Project A is one of the leading early-stage tech investors in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to $1bn assets under management, Project A supports its portfolio companies with a platform team of over 140 functional experts in key areas such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, sales and recruiting.
The venture capital firm was founded in 2012 and has backed more than 100 startups. The portfolio includes companies such as Trade Republic, WorldRemit, sennder, KRY, Spryker, Catawiki, Unmind and Voi.
In addition, we would like to thank Markku Räsänen (H9i Partners Oy), Andreas Umbach (AUCCEPT GmbH) and Johannes Fröhling (Deep Tech A).
Support Programs
The photonic revolution is also financed by some governmental programs: IPCEI, ULTRAPHO, NeuroSys and a second BMBF-funded project, “ATIQ”. In addition, Black Semiconductor is in contact with the Federal Government and the State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia to achieve further funding.
The IPCEI program is an EU-wide coordinated program under special rules for state aid. The European Commission is responsible for the legal framework, and the member states are responsible for the budget and deciding which activities to support. On 01.10.2021, Black Semiconductor submitted the so-called project portfolio, which describes the scope and actions intended to be performed during the IPCEI project.
