Syenta, an Australian semiconductor company working on a new way to connect chips inside AI systems, has raised $26 million in a Series A round. The company was founded by Dr. Jekaterina Viktorova and grew out of research at the Australian National University. Its technology targets a problem that has become increasingly urgent as AI systems scale up: the bottleneck that forms not within individual chips, but at the point where chips need to talk to each other.

To understand why this matters, it helps to know what advanced packaging actually is. When a chip is manufactured, it does not go straight into a device on its own. It gets assembled alongside processors, memory, and other components into a single working unit. That assembly process is called packaging. For most of the semiconductor industry’s history, packaging was considered low-priority work. That view has changed sharply. Nvidia has reserved the majority of TSMC’s leading CoWoS packaging technology, and capacity is so heavily booked that TSMC has reportedly outsourced some steps to third-party companies. As wafer fabrication expands under the CHIPS Act and similar programs, advanced packaging techniques like 3D stacking and CoWoS have emerged as the primary limiting factors for AI chip supply. Bloomberg Intelligence projects the market for advanced packaging could grow eightfold, reaching $80.5 billion by 2033, pushed by the spread of AI chips from data centers into consumer electronics and vehicles.

The Series A was led by Playground Global and Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund, known as the NRF, with Investible, Salus Ventures, Jelix Ventures, and Wollemi Capital also participating. No valuation was disclosed. The raise brings Syenta’s total funding to more than $36 million. Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel and now general partner at Playground Global, joins the company’s board as part of the deal.

Why Advanced Packaging Has Become a Supply Chain Problem

The issue goes deeper than demand. AI systems are increasingly built around multiple chips that work together in a single package, and the connections between those chips, called interconnects, need to move more data faster, without adding cost or requiring factories to be rebuilt from scratch.

Advanced packaging capacity has lagged well behind investment in wafer fabrication. While chip fabs have received billions of dollars under CHIPS Acts and similar government programs, packaging has not seen the same level of urgency or funding, despite being just as important to overall system performance. The supply chain for packaging remains narrow and geographically concentrated. That concentration is now drawing attention across the industry.

“AI is driving unprecedented demand for heterogeneous, panel-scale systems. These systems — often composed of hundreds of chiplets — require continued innovation in packaging architectures to increase interconnect bandwidth while improving energy efficiency.”

Deepak Kulkarni, Senior Fellow, AMD

How Syenta Plans to Use the $26 Million

The funding will go toward commercializing Syenta’s core technology, a manufacturing process it calls Localized Electrochemical Manufacturing, or LEM. The company is also opening a U.S. office in Arizona, placing it closer to semiconductor customers and the domestic packaging programs being developed there. TSMC and others are already investing in Arizona-based packaging facilities, and Syenta’s expansion is timed to that build-out.

“This is a new way of building high-performance systems at unprecedented scale and power, particularly as AI workloads continue to grow. AI’s next scaling challenge isn’t just compute, it’s how chips connect. What’s compelling about Syenta is that the company is tackling a key constraint in advanced packaging and contributing to the expansion of a more resilient global semiconductor ecosystem.”

Pat Gelsinger, general partner at Playground Global

High-volume production is also on the roadmap. The LEM process has been tested through industry programs, including work with semiconductor equipment providers, which indicates the technology has moved beyond the lab.

The Team and Technology Behind Syenta

Syenta is headquartered in Australia and operates across Australia, Europe, and the United States. Dr. Viktorova, who holds a PhD in localized electrodeposition, invented the core technology and leads the company as CEO. Her co-founders each bring specific technical depth: Ben Wilkinson oversees technical development and the IP portfolio as CTO; Prof. Luke Connal, a professor of chemistry at the Australian National University, brings two decades of experience in polymer chemistry and additive manufacturing; and COO Zachary Dowse previously led a tech incubator that helped companies raise more than $100 million.

LEM works by combining two manufacturing steps, metal deposition and patterning, into one. A stamp electrode directs metal precisely where it needs to go, producing micron-scale connections between chips on large packages. The company says this approach uses 40% fewer process steps than conventional methods, and it does not require factories to be redesigned or replaced.

“Today’s advanced packaging approaches have real limits on interconnect density, which constrain the bandwidth between chips. We’re enabling finer-pitch connections within existing manufacturing infrastructure, allowing systems to move more data more efficiently and at a lower cost without requiring entirely new fabrication approaches.”

Dr. Jekaterina Viktorova, CEO and founder of Syenta

The Investors Behind the Round

Playground Global and Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund co-led the Series A. The NRF is a government-backed fund set up to support advanced manufacturing and industrial capability in Australia.

“Syenta exemplifies the type of globally competitive, high-impact innovation the NRF was created to support. By advancing next-generation packaging technologies, Syenta strengthens Australia’s role in critical supply chains while contributing to global semiconductor resilience.”

Dr. Mary Manning, Chief Investment Officer, NRF

Investible, Salus Ventures, Jelix Ventures, and Wollemi Capital returned as investors in this round. Total funding raised to date now exceeds $36 million. Niki Scevak, co-founder of Blackbird Ventures, also holds a board seat, adding another connection to Australia’s venture capital community.

Origianl Creator: Ekaterina Pisareva
Original Link: https://justainews.com/companies/funding-news/syenta-gets-26m-series-a-for-advanced-chip-packaging/
Originally Posted: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:32:17 +0000