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British Patient Capital Invests £5.5m in Pragmatic Semiconductor

Press release 06 December 2023

British Patient Capital has made a £5.5 million investment into Pragmatic Semiconductor, a Cambridge-based designer and manufacturer of semiconductors, as part of a £162m first close of its Series D funding round, with a second close to follow.

The investment has been made via Future Fund: Breakthrough, British Patient Capital’s £375m programme where it co-invests with private sector investors in innovative, R&D-intensive UK companies. This latest commitment follows on from a previous investment in Pragmatic’s Series C funding round in December 2022.

PragmatIC, which has a production facility in County Durham in addition to its head office in Cambridge Science Park, specialises in the design and production of flexible integrated circuits, a technology offering a faster-to-produce alternative to silicon chips with lower environmental impact.

The funding round will enable Pragmatic to accelerate its expansion plans in the UK to meet growing demand, including building its 3rd and 4th fabrication lines at its Pragmatic Park facility in County Durham. Each line is capable of producing billions of chips that enable novel, fast-growing applications across multiple sectors including consumer, industrial and healthcare.

M&G’s Catalyst fund and UK Infrastructure Bank co-led the investment with participation from new investors including Northern Gritstone and existing investors including Cambridge Innovation Capital alongside British Patient Capital.

Pragmatic has become a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing through truly innovative product development that converges cutting-edge technology with practical solutions for their customers. We are delighted to make a follow-on investment in Pragmatic to enable their continued expansion.

Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital

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.

We also see demand from customers for our unique Fab-as-a Service deployment model. This is a modular semiconductor manufacturing approach that provides customers with access to an efficient, localised and secure supply of chips through a dedicated production facility wherever they need it.

David Moore CEO, Pragmatic

Further Information

Notes to editors

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more about British Patient Capital.

British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of Pragmatic Semiconductor.

About PragmatIC Semiconductor

PragmatIC Semiconductor is a world leader in ultra-low-cost flexible electronics. Its unique technology platform enables innovators to create novel solutions to everyday problems that are beyond the scope of conventional electronics. Its flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) are thinner than a human hair and extend proven applications such as RFID and NFC into mass market use cases, enabling the potential for trillions of smart objects that can engage with consumers and their environments. PragmatIC is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with manufacturing operations in the North East.

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