China semiconductor player Eswin raises $420m
Beijing Eswin Technology Group, a semiconductor products and services supplier, has raised a CNY 3bn (USD 420m) Series D round led by Beijing Financial Street Operation Center.
Other investors include Guoxin Venture Investment backed by Shanghai International Group, Beijing E-town International Investment & Development, and China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, according to a statement.
The company raised CNY 4bn in Series C funding led by the New Materials Fund of China National Building Material last year. This followed a Series B of CNY 2bn led by IDG Capital and Legend Capital in 2020.
Eswin was founded in 2016 and is chaired by Dongsheng Wang, who founded a leading display company called BOE in 1993 and is regarded as a pioneer in China’s semiconductor display industry.
The initial focus was on integrated circuits (IC) and services in three core areas: display, artificial intelligence (AI) data processing, and wireless connectivity. Application areas include mobile devices, smart homes, smart transportation, and industrial internet-of-things.
The company subsequently expanded from chip design to chip manufacturing and is now one of the few companies in China that can produce 12-inch large silicon wafers. The core businesses are now ICs and related solutions, silicon materials, advanced packaging, and testing.
The first phase of production, launched in July 2020, had a monthly capacity of 300,000 units, more than any other domestic manufacturer. Hardware production is said to be based on an open-source architecture for chip design known as RISC-V.
In addition to headquarters in Beijing, Eswin operates out of R&D centres in Haining, Hefei, Chengdu, Xi’an, Shanghai, Nanjing, Changsha, Suzhou, the UK, and South Korea. It also has manufacturing bases in Xi’an and Chengdu. Marketing and sales branches have been set up in 11 domestic cities as well as in Korea, the US, and Japan.
Lighthouse Capital Group served as financial advisor for the Series D.
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