EnSilica (AIM:ENSI), the AIM-listed fabless microchip designer serving space, industrial and automotive markets, is seeking to raise up to £14 million through a placing and subscription, with a separate retail offer targeting up to £1 million, as it looks to capitalise on a sales pipeline it says has grown 50% to US$600 million.
The raise follows a £10 million equity fundraising in March, which the company says enabled it to secure contracts with an aggregate expected lifetime value of up to US$175 million and helped push expected lifetime supply revenues to US$375 million, up from US$250 million at the end of February.
The largest single allocation, up to £5 million, is earmarked for accelerating development of three SatCom user terminal components: a distributed digital beamformer, Ka-band RF integrated circuits, and a 5G non-terrestrial network modem chip.
Up to £3.5 million will fund additional specialist engineering headcount to reduce outsourcing dependency and support follow-on phases of an existing US$3.8 million satellite payload contract.
Whilst up to £2 million targets photonics engineering capacity, anchored by an ongoing data-centre photonics controller contract with Oriole Networks, which has a publicly announced collaboration with AMD.
And, up to £3 million secures manufacturing working capital to scale chip supply, and up to £1.5 million provides general balance sheet flexibility.
"EnSilica has never had a stronger pipeline of opportunities," chief executive Ian Lankshear said, pointing specifically to demand from space and photonics customers.
