This press announcement was originally published by CoolSem Technologies and is posted here with permission.
EINDHOVEN, the Netherlands – CoolSem Technologies, a pioneer in semiconductor thermal management, today announced the closing of its pre-seed financing round. The investment round is led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with participation from KBC Focus Fund NV, Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and TTT Green Tech B.V. (SHIFT Invest). Backed by this strong European syndicate of four renowned international investors, the pre-seed round ensures a solid runway.
The CoolSem Technologies team. From left, COO Kees Steenbergen, CCO Peter Heersink, CEO/CTO André van Geelen and CSO Robbert van der Waal.
The investment will be used to advance CoolSem Technologies’ wafer-level thermal management technology (WaLTIS®) from concept to engineering samples, validated by top-tier customers in RF, power and photonics, supporting qualification activities and real-world performance evidence.
Chips are now a critical resource, with rising pressure on raw materials and significant inefficiencies in heat management. CoolSem Technologies helps to make the semiconductor industry greener by reducing energy waste, extending hardware life, and enabling the reuse of rare materials, three critical levers for a low-carbon, circular economy.
“Heat is becoming a fundamental limiting factor in semiconductor performance,” said André van Geelen, CEO of CoolSem Technologies. “In RF, photonics, and power, conventional materials and packaging are approaching their physical limits. The pre-seed round enables us to demonstrate our wafer-level technology with early customers and advance towards industry adoption. With HTGF leading the investment and strong partners alongside, we can focus on the next phase of execution.”
Olaf Joeressen, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF said, “When I first got in touch with CoolSem Technologies, I was immediately intrigued by the simplicity and elegance of the approach driven by an outstanding team. I believe the technology has the potential to become an indispensable ingredient to the future thermal design of chips, an area that is more critical to the performance of semiconductor devices than ever before!”
Rudi Severijns, Investment Director, KBC Focus Fund said, “We were attracted to CoolSem Technologies’ proposition because of its pragmatic and highly compatible approach. The technology integrates seamlessly into existing semiconductor and photonics value chains, enabling rapid experimentation and adoption with minor redesigns at lower cost. Their solution is turning thermal management from a limiting constraint into a scalable design advantage.”
Ivana Sersic, Senior Investment Manager at the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) said, “We are proud to participate in this pre-seed round backed by an international consortium to enable CoolSem Technologies to validate their unique technology further. CoolSem Technologies is offering a solution to tackle thermal bottlenecks in the semiconductor industry that has the potential to unlock new and more powerful electronic chips having higher system performance, better energy efficiency and extended device lifespans. The team builds on the profound knowledge and expertise in semiconductor chip development concentrated between the regions of Eindhoven, Leuven and Aachen.”
Julie van den Brink, Investment Associate at SHIFT Invest said, “With its strong impact potential and highly capable and driven team, CoolSem Technologies is well positioned for the road ahead, and we are excited to support them on this journey.”
Based in Eindhoven (NL) and founded in 2025, CoolSem Technologies develops wafer-level thermal management technology to reduce thermal resistance and mechanical stress in advanced semiconductor and photonic devices. With its WaLTIS multilayer stack, CoolSem Technologies replaces conventional substrates with an engineered stack designed to enhance heat flow, mechanical stability, and reliability, enabling higher performance and longer lifetime for next-generation devices.
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.
The KBC Focus Fund is a €50 million venture capital fund dedicated to investing in advanced technology (“Deeptech”) companies with international ambitions. Our primary goal is to accelerate emerging sectors such as nanotechnology, microelectronics, and the Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT). We do this not only by providing capital, but also by leveraging our extensive experience in venture investing and our strong industry network. The fund primarily targets opportunities in Belgium and neighboring countries, home to renowned centers of expertise in these technological domains. The KBC Focus Fund leverages on the network and expertise of KBC Group and is managed by KBC Securities. KBC Securities has a solid knowledge of the tech ecosystem in Belgium and beyond with experienced teams in the M&A, Corporate Finance and Research & Sales departments. As part of KBC Group, the KBC Focus Fund aims to be long-term partners for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the driver of innovation – from sustainable food sources to a healthy future, climate-neutral energy, and developing promising key technologies. The Brabant Development Agency (BOM) ensures that startups playing a role in these fields receive the right support and funding to get off to a flying start and grow into scaleups, and that companies that aspire to go global can actually do so. Every year BOM works with dozens of companies to create this impact. BOM is an executive body of the Province of Brabant and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
SHIFT Invest is a leading Dutch impact venture capital fund founded in 2009 and currently investing from its fourth fund. It backs early- and growth-stage companies in food & agriculture, green industries, the energy transition and sustainable mobility & logistics in North-West Europe. Investments (seed, Series A, and growth) focus on bringing meaningful sustainability innovations to market and supporting their commercial success, delivering both environmental and financial returns. Beyond capital, SHIFT supports entrepreneurs with deep expertise, access to an extensive partner-network and strategic guidance.
SHIFT invests in CoolSem Technologies from the Thematic Technology Transfer GreenTech fund (TTT), a collaboration with TNO, RVO and the Dutch universities of Wageningen (WUR), Eindhoven (TU/e), Twente (UT), Delft (TUD), Groningen (RUG), Nijmegen (RU), and Utrecht (UU). The TTT fund focusses on supporting early-stage companies that bring to market disruptive technologies with a strong impact potential. The aim of the fund is to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy.