Company News

36Kr learned that, Getech Dongzhi recently completed a Series B funding round worth hundreds of millions of RMB. This round of funding was jointly invested by SAIC Group and its subsidiaries Hengxu Capital and Yuecai Fund, with Potential Energy Capital acting as the financial advisor. The funds will be primarily used to increase investment in semiconductor CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) products, strengthen the company's AI and big data technology foundation, expand core competitiveness in equipment intelligence and edge control intelligence, and provide deeply integrated solutions for customers in semiconductor materials, equipment, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, as well as new energy lithium battery and photovoltaic industries.

Getech Dongzhi was founded in 2018, focusing on smart manufacturing upgrades in the semiconductor industry. Its semiconductor factory intelligent CIM solution has been implemented in multiple semiconductor factories, and 100% self-developed data intelligence products have successfully helped customers achieve production management, quality traceability, and process optimization from silicon wafers, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, to finished product assembly, from multiple workshops to multiple factories.

Continue investing in semiconductor CIM product R&D to achieve IT and OT integration

With the continuous improvement of semiconductor manufacturing processes and quality requirements, more and more semiconductor manufacturers realize the importance of digital transformation and need a complete and stable CIM solution to control process quality and improve product yield.

Getech Dongzhi was incubated from TCL Group and has semiconductor manufacturing genes, which helps them better understand scenarios and customer needs, and accumulate technical experience. Its semiconductor CIM core products are divided into three categories: production control, equipment management, and quality optimization, including production "brain" MES (Manufacturing Execution System), EAP (Equipment Automation Program), APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling); RMS (Recipe Management System), FDC (Fault Detection and Classification), APC (Advanced Process Control), RCM (Remote Control Management); YMS (Yield Management System) and SPC (Statistical Process Control), QMS (Quality Management System), LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System), etc.

In the most core semiconductor wafer manufacturing field, CIM systems are still dominated by foreign giants. Currently, in domestic 12-inch wafer foundries, most CIM systems are monopolized by foreign giants IBM and Applied Materials. After this round of funding, Getech Dongzhi will further increase investment in the independent R&D of 12-inch CIM core software products and carry out mergers, acquisitions, and strategic cooperation with suitable target companies. In terms of talent acquisition, Getech Dongzhi particularly focuses on introducing professionals with semiconductor industry experience. Core technical experts come from leading semiconductor companies such as Applied Materials, Intel, IBM, TSMC, and Silan Micro.

Getech Dongzhi CEO He Jun told 36Kr, "Getech has gathered a considerable proportion of industry veterans from frontline semiconductor factories, and we have years of whole-plant service experience, so we deeply understand that pure software cannot solve customers' actual needs—customers need overall solutions, including consulting, development implementation, operation and maintenance, and other services."

He Jun introduced that Getech Dongzhi has successfully built a self-controllable smart factory CIM system at Suzhou TCL Huaxing Photoelectric (t10/M10), completing a successful lighthouse case from planning, R&D, to delivery of a full-stack solution. In the future, it will export overall solutions based on this to better help customers complete localization replacement.

Getech Dongzhi believes that the smart manufacturing transformation and upgrade of semiconductor factories has entered a deep stage. Simply providing CIM systems from the IT side perspective can no longer meet the higher standards of intelligence and integration needs of factories. Instead, it is necessary to fully挖掘 data value, leverage the innovative technology advantages of IoT, AI, and big data, empower the underlying equipment on the OT side (Operational Technology), and drive the intelligent upgrade of equipment (such as machine vision, logistics handling, etc.) and edge control hardware with software and algorithms.

Getech Dongzhi has developed multiple data intelligence products in the semiconductor field, such as "cloud-edge-device integrated intelligent monitoring" for semiconductor equipment, and virtual metrology for specific processes (e.g., CMP, CVD).

From semiconductor to new energy, covering multiple links in the industry chain

In 2021, under the national dual-carbon strategy background, Getech Dongzhi, based on its advanced smart manufacturing experience in the semiconductor industry, achieved expansion into new energy industries such as lithium batteries and photovoltaics.

Currently, Getech Dongzhi has achieved full coverage upstream and downstream of the new energy industry chain, with customers involving multiple links such as lithium battery materials, battery cells, lithium battery PACK, and photovoltaic power stations. It can provide customers with new energy smart factory CIM solutions including whole-plant planning, production manufacturing, quality inspection, warehousing and logistics, etc.

As of now, Getech Dongzhi has over 1,500 employees distributed in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Beijing, Tianjin, and other places, with technicians accounting for over 80%. Getech Dongzhi has served nearly 20,000 customers, and more than 50 large manufacturing enterprises have built fully digital smart factories based on Dongzhi's smart factory solutions. Important customers include TCL Huaxing Photoelectric, Gaode Gaoxin, Huahong Huali, CRRC Semiconductor, Changdian绍兴, ASML,蜂巢能源, etc.