(Boston Materials: Billerica, MA) – Boston Materials Inc., a manufacturer of advanced materials key to the next generation of semiconductors and aircraft platforms, has announced $13.5 million in new funding. The investment was led by AccelR8 and Diamond Edge Ventures, the U.S.-based corporate venturing arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Group, a leading global carbon-fiber manufacturer. With this funding, Boston Materials is accelerating its expansion into the semiconductor market, building from its existing footprint in the aerospace market.

“The world is experiencing an unprecedented increase in energy consumption from computing and transportation,” says Dwight Poler, CEO of AccelR8. “Boston Materials is spearheading a new class of materials designed to maximize both the performance and efficiency of energy-intensive systems.”

Founded in 2016, Boston Materials produces a new class of materials that are conductive and durable like metal, yet light as plastic. The underlying patented technology, Z-axis Fiber, uses vertically aligned carbon fibers to create materials with enhanced energy transfer properties. Highly differentiated advanced materials, commercialized under the ZRT trade name, solve critical challenges relating to thermal management and vehicle weight reduction across trillion-dollar industries including semiconductors, aerospace, and electric vehicles.

“Carbon fiber is a strategic product pillar for Mitsubishi Chemical Group. The Boston Materials Z-axis Fiber technology is a fundamentally new approach to expand the importance and applications of carbon fiber into industries that are building the future,” says Curtis Schickner, president of Diamond Edge Ventures.

“There is an urgent and quickly ramping need for advanced energy transfer materials,” says Anvesh Gurijala, Boston Materials CEO. “This new class of materials maximize performance and efficiency across data centers, airplanes, electrified vehicles, and beyond. Boston Materials is aggressively expanding its existing manufacturing capabilities and accelerating global product deployment to meet this demand.”

Boston Materials operates a factory in Billerica, Massachusetts, where the company produces advanced materials using its patented Z-axis Fiber technology.