ECHINT, which engages in advanced integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing, has secured 1 billion yuan ($136.9 million) in a Series B round co-led by venture capital firm Matrix Partners China.
Brilliant Fund, also known as Beite Fund, which invests in strategic and emerging industries, including electronic information and smart manufacturing, also led the funding round, said Lighthouse Capital, the sole financial advisor to the deal.
The round attracted a slew of investors, including BC Capital, Rising Investments, Infore Group, and Tongxi Capital. State-affiliated investors, including Chengdu Science and Technology Innovation Investment Group, and Dongfang Jiangxia Industry Investment Private Equity Fund Management also joined the round.
The news comes four months after the first phase of ECHINT’s packaging and testing plant kickstarted operations in April 2023.
Founded in 2017, Chengdu-based ECHINT, which specialises in fan-out (FO) panel-level packaging (FOPLP), was incubated by Beijing ESWIN Technology Group, which engages in ICs and solutions, silicon materials, and advanced packaging and testing.
ESWIN Technology Group bagged 2.5 billion yuan ($392.4 million) in a Series C round of financing led by Goldstone Investment and CITIC Securities in December 2021.
FO packaging is a technology that has gained prominence as it replaces substrate or interposer with epoxy mold compound to embed the dies amid global substrate shortage caused by the pandemic-induced supply-chain disruption.
Taiwanese firm TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, is the biggest FO packaging player that accounts for 76.7% of the market share, according to a report published by market research firm Yole in March.
Q2 was a record quarter for China’s semiconductor industry with almost $2.4 billion gushing into chip-making firms, the highest quarterly deal value since Q1 2022, as investors continue to plough massive funds into semiconductor startups amid China’s attempt to strive for self-sufficiency in chips.
The record quarter saw 94 deals being sealed, which is the same as the previous quarter; however, the fundraising proceeds marked an 84% quarter-on-quarter growth. There were four mega-deals secured by chip firms in the quarter, accounting for 61.5% of the total proceeds, according to DealStreetAsia’s proprietary data.