Houston-based Atlas Credit Partners has invested $85 million into an Austin-based semiconductor company that works in the aerospace and defense markets.
The investment into Coherent Logix Inc. will be used for growth capital after the company completed several recent deals.
Atlas focuses on investments and partnerships into medium-sized businesses. Recent investments include an $85 million loan facility for New Jersey-based battery manufacturing company Eos Energy.
The funding is Coherent Logix’s first reported round since a $3 million equity series sale in 2019. The company’s primary markets involve the so-called Space 2.0 sector — an approach to spaceflight relying on smaller, cheaper satellites — and the defense industry.
Coherent Logix provides high-performance semiconductors with a low power draw. According to Atlas' announcement, the funding will enable Coherent to concentrate on its terrestrial markets.
The semiconductor industry has made a splash in Texas through projects such as Samsung’s $17 billion plant outside of Austin. Meanwhile, a debate is currently brewing in the Texas Legislature over whether the state should revive elements of the Chapter 313 tax abatement program, which helped attract Samsung to the Lone Star State.
However, there have also been some notable losses of semiconductor-related companies, such as Skorpios Labs moving to California after the University of Texas failed to renew its lease, and some snubs, like Micron building its $100 billion plant in Central New York instead of Lockhart.
Other major Texas-based semiconductor manufacturers include NXP Semiconductors and Applied Materials Inc.
Nationwide, the semiconductor industry gained another boost after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law last year. The act grants federal subsidies in the form of tax credits and loans to the industry to concentrate chip production in the United States.
Major recent tech manufacturing investments in the Houston area include electronics manufacturing platform MacroFab closing a $42 million Series C round to capitalize on changing supply chains.
