Paris-based deeptech startup Hummink has raised €15 million to accelerate the industrial rollout of its High-Precision Capillary Printing technology. The company aims to tackle microscopic defects in semiconductor and display manufacturing, a growing issue as devices become smaller and more complex. By positioning its platform as a real-time repair and functionalization tool, Hummink wants to help manufacturers improve yields while reducing material waste and environmental impact.
Semiconductor Yield Challenges
As microelectronics power artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, the financial impact of defects at the sub-micron scale has become increasingly severe. A single open circuit, dead pixel, or microscopic dark spot can force entire batches of chips or OLED displays to be scrapped. Industry estimates suggest that up to 30 percent of OLED screens produced each year are rejected, resulting in roughly €16 billion in losses and enough wasted material to cover thousands of football fields.
Hummink’s High-Precision Capillary Printing Technology
Hummink’s patented High-Precision Capillary Printing, or HPCaP, works like a miniature fountain pen capable of depositing conductive and functional materials directly onto components. The system offers resolutions ranging from 50 micrometers down to a few hundred nanometers, enabling localized interventions on semiconductor packaging interconnects and display pixels. It is designed to operate on a wide variety of substrates, including metal, glass, plastic, paper, and flexible or three-dimensional surfaces.
Performance and Role in Manufacturing
The company reports that its technology can repair microscopic defects in less than two seconds per site, delivering demonstrated yield improvements of around 10 percent in OLED production. At the same time, the process can cut material waste by about 30 percent, since only targeted areas receive additional ink or metal rather than entire layers being reprocessed. Rather than replacing lithography, HPCaP is positioned as a complementary direct-write tool that identifies and corrects residual flaws that conventional processes leave behind.
Funding Round and Investor Backing
The €15 million round supports Hummink’s transition from laboratory demonstrators to fully integrated industrial modules for semiconductor and display fabrication lines. The financing was co-led by KBC Focus Fund, Cap Horn, and Bpifrance, with participation from Elaia, Sensinnovat, and Beeyond, as well as contributions from the French Tech Seed fund managed by Bpifrance under France 2030 and the European Innovation Council Fund. Earlier backers such as Bpifrance Deeptech and institutional investors including the European Investment Bank are also associated with the broader funding effort around the company’s technology.
From Research Labs to Production Lines
Hummink was founded in 2020 as a spin-off from École Normale Supérieure PSL and CNRS, built around research in materials science and nano-scale printing. The company, led by co-founder and CEO Amin M’Barki and co-founder and COO Pascal Boncenne, first commercialized its NAZCA system for R&D laboratories. NAZCA units are already deployed in Europe, Asia, and the United States, including at Duke University, where researchers used the platform to produce fully recyclable sub-micrometer printed electronics published in the journal Nature Electronics.
Target Markets and Use Cases
Hummink’s initial industrial focus is on next-generation OLED displays for smartphones and laptops, where recovering part of the currently discarded production could unlock substantial economic and environmental gains. Beyond displays, the technology targets advanced semiconductor packaging, integrated photonics, automotive electronics, and emerging memory technologies such as MRAM and ReRAM. In each of these segments, the ability to add or repair features at the micronic level without damaging sensitive layers is intended to improve reliability and extend product lifetimes.
Growth Strategy and Sustainability Positioning
With this new capital, Hummink plans to expand commercial deployment in key semiconductor regions including Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, where yield management is a strategic priority. The company expects to double its workforce by 2026 and aims to grow revenue through a combined model of industrial HPCaP printing modules, proprietary conductive inks that generate recurring sales, and NAZCA systems for research customers. Hummink also emphasizes that yield improvement is not only a performance metric but a sustainability lever, since salvaging defective components reduces scrap, saves energy, and limits resource consumption.
Hummink’s latest funding round underscores how microscopic precision is becoming a macro-level differentiator in advanced manufacturing. By offering a toolset that can repair and optimize electronic components in real time, the company is trying to convert tiny flaws into recoverable value for chip and display makers. If its High-Precision Capillary Printing platform scales as planned, Hummink could become an important enabler for more efficient, resilient, and sustainable semiconductor and display production.