Pragmatic secures UK semiconductor fabrication with £182m investment
Pragmatic Semiconductor, a world leader in manufacturing flexible integrated circuits, has completed a first close of its Series D funding round, securing an investment of £162m - the largest ever European semiconductor venture funding round.
The majority of the investment secured (more than 70 per cent) is from UK investors attracted by the potential of Pragmatic’s flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs), which replace mainstream silicon chips with polymer substrates for use in both existing and new applications, including smart packaging and sensors.
This enables Pragmatic – the winner of the Technology Company of the Year at the 2023 Cambridge Independent Science & Technology Awards – to produce thinner, cheaper and more sustainable chips compared with traditional methods: the production method involves dramatically reduced fabrication times and significantly lower carbon footprint.
The investment is forecast to create 500 highly skilled jobs in north-east England and Cambridge as the company prepares to build the third and fourth fabrication lines at its Pragmatic Park facility in Durham.
M&G’s Catalyst and UK Infrastructure Bank co-led the funding round with participation from new investors including Northern Gritstone, Latitude and MVolution Partners, and existing investors such as British Patient Capital, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Prosperity7 Ventures (the diversified growth fund under Aramco Ventures).
John Flint, CEO of UK Infrastructure Bank, said: “The Bank has an important role to play in unlocking finance to scale up domestic supply chains, like semiconductors, which are critical to the UK’s transition to net zero.
“Our investment in Pragmatic backs a British business to accelerate development of a first-of-a-kind technology which not only cuts the carbon emissions of semiconductor production, but which will drive growth in the local economy in the North-East.”
The equity deal, the largest ever for a European semiconductor company, values Pragmatic, founded in 2010, at about £500million.
David Moore, Pragmatic’s CEO, said: “This successful Series D round is a clear testament to the massive opportunity for our innovative technology to enable item-level intelligence in virtually any object on the planet. Our global customers value our ultra-thin and flexible form factor, our breakthrough low cost of customisation and rapid production cycles, as well as the lower environmental footprint compared to silicon.
“Scaling our manufacturing capacity on the UK’s first ever 300mm wafer production lines at our site in Durham will enable us to deliver hundreds of billions of chips to customers worldwide over the coming decade.”
- Details on how to enter the Cambridge Independent’s 2024 Science & Technology Awards are available here.
