BlueRun Ventures Leads Angel Round of Several Tens of Millions for Jaren Semiconductor | BlueRun Ventures

Recently, Garen Semiconductor announced the completion of a tens-of-millions RMB angel round. The round was led by BlueRun Ventures, with participation from Yuquan Capital. The proceeds will be used to strengthen the team and accelerate R&D into new methods for gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) substrate materials, as well as pilot line development.

BlueRun Ventures stated: The rapid development of new energy vehicles, new-type power systems, and other sectors in China has placed increasingly demanding requirements on power semiconductor materials and devices. As an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material, gallium oxide demonstrates strong performance and commercialization prospects in high-voltage, high-power applications. At the same time, gallium oxide's theoretically lower cost positions it to become the preferred high-value power semiconductor material of the future. The Garen Semiconductor team brings years of experience in semiconductor material growth and has become one of the important players in China's gallium oxide space. BlueRun Ventures believes that under the leadership of Academician Deren Yang and Professor Hui Zhang, Garen Technology has the potential to become a leading enterprise in China's gallium oxide field, further strengthening its competitive advantage in wide bandgap semiconductor materials and devices.

Hangzhou Garen Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was founded in September 2022. It is a technology enterprise focused on the R&D, production, and sales of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor single-crystal substrates and epitaxial materials, including gallium oxide. The company pioneered a new non-EFG (edge-defined film-fed growth) method for gallium oxide single-crystal growth, breaking the international market monopoly on gallium oxide materials and enabling the supply of gallium oxide single-crystal substrate materials with fully independent intellectual property rights. The founding team originated from the State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials at Zhejiang University and the Hangzhou International Science and Innovation Center at Zhejiang University. The company has already assembled an R&D and production team with a Chinese Academy of Sciences academician as chief advisor, and will continue to provide material support for the development of China's power electronics and related industries.

Since Tesla adopted silicon carbide (SiC) in 2018 and Xiaomi used gallium nitride (GaN) for fast charging in 2020, wide bandgap materials — silicon carbide and gallium nitride — have gained market recognition and seized growth opportunities, gradually expanding from hot sectors like new energy vehicles and consumer electronics into additional application scenarios. As wide bandgap semiconductors have flourished, ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as gallium oxide, aluminum nitride, and diamond have begun attracting attention as well. Among these, gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) is an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material that has received widespread international attention and recognition as having entered commercialization. According to projections by Japan's Fuji Keizai, the compound annual growth rate for gallium oxide and devices will exceed 50% over the next decade. It holds enormous advantages in high-power, high-current, and high-voltage devices, while also posing strong competition to current SiC, GaN, and Si IGBT solutions in medium-voltage power devices and RF devices — with core advantages in energy efficiency, performance improvement, and size reduction.

High-quality, low-cost gallium oxide single-crystal substrates are the key to the entire industry chain. Currently, only one company globally can supply them stably, using the EFG method to produce and prepare gallium oxide substrates. However, because the EFG method requires large quantities of iridium metal, gallium oxide wafer prices remain prohibitively high. Additionally, the large temperature gradients inherent to the EFG method make it difficult to further improve gallium oxide quality, severely hindering iterative device development. Garen Semiconductor has pioneered a new gallium oxide single-crystal growth technology with extremely clear advantages in cost control, size scaling, quality improvement, and intelligent manufacturing — with the potential to drive advancement across the gallium oxide material and device industry.

Garen Semiconductor founder Hui Zhang noted that due to urgent demand for efficient power usage, China's power device and materials industry will see even more rapid development. After years of concentrated effort, the Garen Semiconductor team has mastered the complete set of key technologies spanning equipment development, thermal field design, crystal growth, crystal processing, and epitaxial growth — positioning them to solve the "chokepoint" challenges facing gallium oxide materials.

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Originating in Silicon Valley, BlueRun Ventures was established in 2005 as a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.

BlueRun Ventures currently manages multiple USD and RMB dual-currency funds in China, with assets under management exceeding RMB 15 billion, making it one of the largest early-stage funds in the country. It invests primarily at the Pre-A and Series A stages, covering hard tech and innovative interaction, enterprise technology, new consumer, and healthcare sectors. It has made over 150 investments in startup companies, including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi.com, Qudian, Songguo Chuxing, Ganji.com, Energy Monster, Yuntu Semiconductor, Machenike, Yunsheng Intelligence, Anxin Wangdun, and BioMap.

BlueRun Ventures has been ranked #1 on Zero2IPO's "China Top 30 Early-Stage Investment Institutions," #1 on ChinaVenture's "China Best Early-Stage Venture Capital Institutions TOP30," and named among Preqin's Top 10 globally consistent high-return VC fund managers.

Additionally, BlueRun Ventures has repeatedly received honors from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media organizations — including "China's Best Early-Stage Firm of the Year," "China Top Venture Capital Firm," "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Early-Stage Firm of the Year," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Firm of the Year."