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Dr Simon Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Paragraf, discusses scaling graphene from a Cambridge University invention to a commercial semiconductor foundry on Episode 22 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.
Thomas traces Paragraf's eight-year journey from university spin-out to opening the world's first graphene foundry in Huntingdon, UK. The company's core breakthrough is the ability to deposit uniform, wafer-scale graphene directly onto substrates compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing equipment - solving the "lab to fab" problem that has blocked graphene commercialisation since the material was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004. Paragraf has raised approximately $150 million in total across seed, Series A, Series B ($60 million led by New Science Ventures), and Series C ($55 million led by Mubadala), and has expanded internationally with operations in San Diego, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi. Thomas argues that graphene devices could reduce the computing industry's share of global energy consumption from approximately 20% to under 2%, while also enabling new product categories in medical diagnostics and next-generation battery technology.
This episode is relevant for deep tech founders navigating multi-stage fundraising, semiconductor and advanced materials investors, climate technology founders building hardware companies, and anyone working on energy-efficient computing, point-of-care diagnostics, or graphene electronics.
Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/
Explore Paragraf here: https://www.paragraf.com
