Promising Nearfield Instruments raises € 135 million in new round

Today, Invest-NL announced it is investing € 10 million in Nearfield Instruments through the Deep Tech Fund, as part of a € 135 million Series C financing round. As an early investor, Invest-NL has played a significant role in the rapid growth of TNO spin-off Nearfield Instruments, a metrology and inspection scale-up in the semiconductor industry. This new investment round will enable Nearfield Instruments to further scale up. In addition to lead investors Walden Catalyst and Temasek, M&G, Innovation Industries, the Strategic Partners Fund and ING are also investing in this round.

Nearfield Instruments develops and delivers groundbreaking Metrology & Inspection (M&I) solutions for the global semiconductor industry. Nearfield's solutions are capable of measuring critical 3D nanostructures in a non-destructive manner during the microchip manufacturing process. Measuring these structures is essential for producing high-quality chips that, for instance, increase memory capacity or accelerate processes in laptops, smartphones, and data centres.

Nearfield Instruments holds a unique competitive position because current measurement solutions do not provide the required resolution, are too slow, or are destructive. Nearfield’s QUADRA 3D metrology system is the only one in the world that can achieve metrology and inspection with both the necessary accuracy and speed. This enables semiconductor factories to save enormous costs, reduce e-waste, and have better control over their production process.

"Nearfield Instruments has the potential to become a highly valuable Dutch company in the semiconductor industry, and we are proud to have been an investor in this remarkable scale-up since 2020," says Bart van Campenhout, investment associate at Invest-NL. "This investment illustrates how we strengthen the innovative power of the Netherlands with our Deep Tech Fund."