‘Amously’, Secures Seed Investment from FuturePlay and The Ventures
| Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Automation Solution
Amously, which is developing the semiconductor manufacturing process automation solution ‘Amfibian’, announced on the 13th that it has completed a seed (early-stage) investment round from FuturePlay and The Ventures. The amount of investment was not disclosed.
Amously is a startup that was launched last May through Higarage, SK hynix’s internal venture program. Its goal is to precisely manage manufacturing processes in a manner similar to autonomous driving through advanced process control (APC), a core technology in semiconductor manufacturing. Choi Seungchoun, CEO of Amously, specialized in CMP process modeling—one of the semiconductor manufacturing processes—at the University of California, Berkeley, and has led process control and manufacturing innovation at global manufacturing companies such as Hanwha, Corning, and SK hynix.
‘Amfibian’ finely adjusts semiconductor manufacturing equipment recipes at the wafer level to maintain consistent quality and can improve yield by up to 10%, depending on the customer. Since a 1% improvement in semiconductor yield can generate economic effects worth hundreds of billions of KRW, ‘Amfibian’ is expected to contribute to cost reduction and quality improvement for manufacturers. In particular, it enables even entry-level engineers to achieve performance comparable to experienced experts, helping to alleviate labor shortages and maximize manufacturing efficiency.
Jeon Aram, Senior Investment Manager at FuturePlay, said, “Just as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies replace physical labor, the shortage of process engineers capable of effectively operating factories and equipment will become evident within the next decade,” adding, “A specialized team like Amously, which possesses not just monitoring capabilities but also fundamental process engineering and data analysis expertise, will solve this problem.”
Kim Cheol-woo, CEO of The Ventures, stated, “Given Korea’s strong global competitiveness in the semiconductor industry, we expect significant opportunities for industrial AI startups,” adding, “A major industrial transformation using AI and robotics is already taking place across various manufacturing sectors. We look forward to Amously’s future growth potential, given its expertise in data, AI, and internal processes.”
CEO Choi Seungchoun said, “As global competition for semiconductor leadership intensifies, demand for process engineers continues to exceed supply,” adding, “Through this seed investment, we will develop industrial AI that achieves true fab automation based on a deep understanding of mass-production semiconductor processes.” Meanwhile, Amously plans to complete the prototype development of ‘Amfibian’ and conduct deployment tests with domestic semiconductor manufacturers.
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