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.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Patient Capital said: “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.”

David Moore, CEO, Pragmatic, 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.”

“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.