Стартап HexSeed привлек £600 тыс. для разработки алмазного покрытия для охлаждения чипов искусственного интеллекта

HexSeed Technology, founded last year in Banchory near Aberdeen, has raised more than £600,000 in early-stage funding to scale its low-temperature diamond coating technology designed to prevent AI power semiconductors from overheating. Investors were Carbon13, Net Zero Technology Centre and Vento. Hexseed grows CVD diamond films on GaN devices to extract heat at the source — using CO₂-derived feedstock for a low-carbon supply chain The company is working with Bristol University to develop a low-temperature microwave plasma technique to grow the diamond coatings directly onto GaN chips. The coating dissipates heat away from active device regions, extending chip lifespans, improving thermal efficiency, and lowering energy consumption across hyperscale facilities. The startup will use the funding to validate the coating process on commercial GaN devices and launch pilot customer trials, targeting data centre power conversion hardware as its primary market. Hexseed was founded by CEO Mark Tandy, CTO Dr Leonardo Santoni, and COO Dr Michael Glerum (pictured L-R Santoni Tandy, Glerum) “Data centres are on track to consume a significant share of UK grid capacity within the decade, and a large proportion of that energy is lost as heat in power conversion,” said Tandy, “this funding will allow us to take our low-temperature diamond coating technology which we are developing from laboratory demonstration to working GaN devices.”