Hillhouse Capital and HSG Invest in the "Queen of Gallium Nitride"

Being recognized by two leading institutions, Hillhouse and Sequoia, Star Key Semiconductor is obviously no ordinary company. Its founder, Luo Weiwei, is a leading figure in China's third-generation semiconductor industry.

Recently, industrial and commercial information shows that Hillhouse Ventures, Sequoia China, and Bairui Capital have become new investors in Star Key Semiconductor (Wuhan) Co., Ltd.

A reporter from the Venture Capital Daily contacted Star Key Semiconductor to verify the progress of this round of financing. As of the time of publication, the company had not responded. However, the reporter learned from an informed source that the above investment institutions have indeed participated in the latest round of financing.

Being recognized by two leading institutions, Hillhouse and Sequoia, Star Key Semiconductor is obviously no ordinary company. Its founder, Luo Weiwei, is a leading figure in China's third-generation semiconductor industry. The InnoScience Technology (02577.HK) she founded earlier has completed its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a market value of over 60 billion yuan.

In the industry, Luo Weiwei is known as the "Queen of Gallium Nitride". She promoted the establishment of InnoScience's factory in Suzhou, making it the world's first company to achieve mass production of 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride wafers. According to data from Jiazi Suzhou, as of July this year, InnoScience had shipped over 1 billion chips.

In 2022, Luo Weiwei founded Star Key Semiconductor, focusing on the Micro LED micro-display direction of the silicon-based gallium nitride technology route. Judging from the public financing progress, Luoyang Science and Technology Innovation Group, a state-owned asset in Henan, was its angel investor and completed its investment in September 2022.

It wasn't until the end of 2024 that Star Key Semiconductor introduced a new round of investors, including Walden International, Huaye Tiancheng, and Shengyu Capital. In April this year, Wuhan High-Tech Industry Investment, Legend Capital, etc. also joined the shareholder list.

Meanwhile, Star Key Semiconductor settled in Wuhan Optics Valley in October 2024 and completed the factory construction and equipment installation in just eight months.

In September this year, Star Key Semiconductor's Micro LED production line in Optics Valley was officially put into operation, becoming the first 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride Micro LED chip pilot line in China.

It is reported that this production line covers the complete process from epitaxial growth to chip module packaging. The area of the first-phase factory is about 1,600 square meters. After reaching full production, the annual production capacity will reach 12,000 pieces of 8-inch Micro LED chips. Currently, it focuses on the large-scale mass production of monochromatic displays and gradually moves towards full-color displays. The products can be applied to AR/MR glasses.

Behind this is also the support of InnoScience. In March this year, InnoScience and Star Key Semiconductor signed a framework agreement for the sale of products, services, and equipment, stipulating that from 2025 to 2027, InnoScience will provide gallium nitride epitaxial wafers, testing services such as failure analysis, and epitaxial growth equipment to Star Key Semiconductor.

Luo Weiwei's "new project" targets a rapidly growing "blue ocean market". A reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned that in the application scenarios of Micro LED, AR glasses are considered the main battlefield for technological iteration and product implementation.

This year is recognized as the "first year" of the explosion of the AR glasses market. In the first quarter alone, the global shipments of smart glasses were nearly 1.5 million units, a year-on-year increase of over 80%. Tech giants such as Xiaomi, Meta, and Rokid have entered the market one after another.

On the funding side, recently, Shanghai JBD announced that it had completed a Series B2 financing of over 1 billion yuan, setting a new record for a single financing in the global Micro LED micro-display field. Previously, Thunderbird Innovation completed a Series C++ financing in August, and Yingmu Technology completed a Series B2 financing of 150 million yuan in July.

The silicon-based gallium nitride technology route of Micro LED chosen by Star Key Semiconductor has the advantages of high brightness, low power consumption, and high integration, making it suitable for large-scale mass production. In the current market, it is listed as one of the top choices.

The company itself is also paying attention to the progress of the downstream market. Previously, Chen Diefeng, the marketing director of Star Key Semiconductor, pointed out that the AI era is giving rise to a new generation of human-computer interaction methods represented by AR smart glasses. He said that the core challenge in the industrialization of Micro LED micro-displays currently lies in achieving low-cost, high-yield wafer-level hybrid bonding and full-color technology. Star Key Semiconductor has chosen the 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride epitaxy and hybrid bonding technology route and established an IDM model covering epitaxy to modules to accelerate the technology integration and industrialization process, aiming to provide high-performance micro-display solutions for AI terminals.

Special statement: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors shall bear the risks associated with any investment decisions made based on this article.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Venture Capital Daily". Author: Yu Shiqi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.