[Pre-IPO] Graphene Square, a graphene material company, secures 57 billion won in cumulative investment... Accelerating graphene commercialization and IPO preparations

Graphene Square, a large-area graphene material company, has completed a 13.5 billion won Pre-IPO bridge investment ahead of its initial public offering (IPO). By securing the necessary funds for IPO preparation and strengthening production and commercialization capabilities, its cumulative investment has increased to 57 billion won.

This Pre-IPO bridge round has been underway since March of this year. Depending on market conditions and capital demand, Graphene Square is considering a separate Pre-IPO round as early as the end of this year, applying a valuation slightly higher than the existing Pre-IPO enterprise value.

Previously, the company has attracted external funds over the past 10 years through Series A, B, and C following its seed investment in 2014. It raised 1 billion won in Seed, 8.5 billion won in Series A, 26 billion won in Series B, and 8 billion won in Series C, with institutional investors such as SVIC, DS Asset Management, and IBK Securities, as well as the KOSDAQ-listed Theragen Etex, participating as investors.

Graphene Square is an advanced materials company founded in 2012 by CEO Hong Byung-hee, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Seoul National University and director of the Graphene Research Center at the Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology. The company produces large-area graphene films using the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process and is promoting the commercialization of applied products such as heating, heat dissipation, and defrosting materials, as well as optical thin films and components for sensors and semiconductors.

Graphene is an ultra-lightweight new material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It features excellent electrical and thermal conductivity and high light transmittance, making it useful in various industries such as electronics, semiconductors, mobility, and displays. Graphene Square is establishing a mass production system for graphene films based on its Pohang production facility and plans to expand the industrial application range of graphene wafers and films in the future.

The company's business areas are largely divided into three categories. In the home appliance field, it is introducing cooking and heating appliances utilizing transparent graphene heating elements. By utilizing the heating properties of graphene, which generates heat when electricity is applied, and its transparency, it is characterized by allowing the interior of the product to be checked during cooking or heating. Representative product lines include the Graphene Kitchen Styler, wireless cookers, and radiators that combine transparent heaters with holographic flames.

In the mobility field, the company is developing transparent defrosting heating materials that remove frost and fog from vehicle windshields and LiDAR sensors, as well as local heating heaters that quickly warm parts of the passenger space. As the expansion of autonomous driving and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) makes it important to stably secure the field of view for external vehicle sensors such as cameras and LiDAR, the scope of use for materials possessing both transparency and heating functions is also widening.

In the semiconductor and sensor field, graphene is being applied to pellicles for the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography process and heat dissipation materials for semiconductor packaging. An EUV pellicle is a thin protective film that protects the photomask from fine particle contamination during the lithography process used to pattern semiconductor circuits; it is a component that must withstand the heat and mechanical load inside the lithography equipment while allowing sufficient light to pass through.

Based on its thin thickness, high mechanical strength, and thermal conductivity, graphene is being researched as a candidate material for next-generation pellicles. Graphene Square is also conducting research to apply these characteristics to actual semiconductor processes. In collaboration with Seoul National University and others, the company has produced a composite film by stacking large-area CVD graphene and combining it with silicon nitride (SiN) and molybdenum (Mo) thin films. As more graphene was stacked, the strength of the film increased, and the performance of passing EUV light was also secured. It also implemented a full-scale pellicle structure with a width of 110mm and a height of 140mm, presenting the possibility of manufacturing and transferring large-area graphene as films for semiconductor processes.

The related research results were published in the international academic journal 'Advanced Functional Materials' in 2026. This research is evaluated as a case showing that graphene can become a core material for EUV pellicles used in ultra-fine semiconductor processes. Graphene Square plans to expand its business application range into high-value-added material fields, such as pellicles for semiconductors, based on its proprietary CVD graphene production technology.

※ It is stated that this article was written after verifying the facts through investigation.