John Herlocker, CEO of Tignis, pitching the startup during GeekWire’s Elevator Pitch competition in 2019. (GeekWire File Photo / Dan DeLong)

Seattle-based startup Tignis has raised $7.2 million in new funding as it continues to innovate with artificial intelligence process control in semiconductor manufacturing.

The company’s PAICe suite of products uses AI and machine learning to accelerate the ability to build, validate and deploy machine learning enabled solutions in the manufacturing and process industries.

“AI Process control will accelerate semiconductor process development, improve efficiency and quality, and enable manufacturing technologies that previously were too complex to model, resulting in production of smaller and more complex chips, faster time to market and improved yield while reducing the cost of operations,” Jon Herlocker, president and CEO of Tignis, said in a news release.

Tignis, which employs 17 people, plans to use the funds to expand its sales team and execute on current contracts.

Herlocker co-founded Tignis in 2017 after leaving virtualization software company VMware, where he was vice president and CTO of the company’s cloud management business unit. Fellow co-founder and chief operating officer Matt McLaughlin was VMware’s director of engineering

The Series A round was led by venture capital fund DN Capital with participation by Clear Ventures, former Microsoft executive and VMware CEO Paul Maritz, and former GE Digital CTO Harel Kodesh.

Tignis previously raised $7.4 million in angel and seed funding, plus another $1 million dollar investment in 2021 from innovation company BMNT.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.