The new financing will help the firm further scale up its market share and up its stake in product R&D, including continued investment in sputtering targets used in semiconductor, solar power products, and solid oxide fuel cells, according to a statement on January 9. Following the establishment of its parent in 1995, VTFM started in 2014 as a joint venture between Vital Materials and Belgian materials tech firm Umicore to produce indium tin oxide (ITO) – a coating material composed of indium, tin, and oxygen with different proportions – for the Chinese market. As of now, VTFM has nearly 1,000 employees and four manufacturing sites in China’s Guangdong and Anhui provinces, South Korea, and Singapore.