French chipmaker NanoXplore raises €20 million to expand into defence and strengthen Europe’s electronic sovereignty

NanoXplore, a French fabless company, has secured €20 million in funding to speed up its diversification into the defence sector by developing security-focused products and to back its strategic external growth plans in Europe.

The funding was raised from European defence company MBDA and the Defence Innovation Fund managed by Bpifrance.

“As an independent French company, we have shown that it is possible to design and produce state-of-the-art advanced electronic chips in Europe. This funding round will allow us to go further: accelerate our diversification into defence with products specifically designed for these markets, while continuing a strategy of targeted acquisitions in Europe. Our ambition is clear: to make NanoXplore the reference player for European electronic sovereignty,” Édouard Lepape, CEO of NanoXplore noted. 

Founded in 2013, NanoXplore is an independent, family-owned Fabless IC design company that offers radiation-hardened components with a complete software suite. It produces FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), programmable and reconfigurable integrated circuits that are “hardened” against radiation (“rad-hard”), making them capable of operating in extreme environments such as space or certain defence systems.

The company recently launched NG-ULTRA, which it claims is the world’s most advanced rad-hard SoC FPGA (System-on-Chip Field-Programmable Gate Array). 

In addition to high-reliability components, the company positions itself as supporting European electronic sovereignty. NanoXplore claims to rely on a 100% European supply chain, including for chip manufacturing, thereby earning it the “ITAR-free” label. ITAR stands for International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and is a set of regulations administered by the US Department of State’s Directorate of Defence Trade Controls (DDTC) that controls the export and transfer of defence-related articles, services and technical data. Being “ITAR-free” means that NanoXplore’s products are not subject to US defence export regulations. 

NanoXplore also reported that its circuits are already embedded in major space programmes, including the Galileo and Copernicus missions, and provide a sovereign alternative to non-European components.

“This equity investment fully aligns with the strategy of the Defence Innovation Fund. NanoXplore embodies exactly what we aim to support: an innovative French SME mastering technologies that are critical to our sovereignty. Their ‘ITAR-free’ approach with a 100% European supply chain addresses the strategic priorities of our defence technological and industrial base. By supporting the growth of this technology champion—its diversification from space into defence and its European growth strategy—we are helping strengthen Europe’s technological autonomy in a sector as sensitive as critical microelectronics,” commented Nicolas Berdou, Investment Director of the Defence Innovation Fund at Bpifrance. 

Regarding its investors, NanoXplore stated in the press release: “MBDA brings its industrial footprint and deep understanding of European armed forces’ operational needs. Bpifrance, through the Defence Innovation Fund, aligns this transaction with its strategy to support the French defence technological and industrial base, backing an SME that plays a key role in securing the electronic components supply chain as an essential European champion in its field.” 

With this fresh capital, the company aims to accelerate its diversification from space into defence by developing a new generation of components specifically designed for these uses (secured FPGAs, ultra-low power) and adapting existing technologies to the needs of land, air and naval systems.

The funding will also be deployed to support a growth strategy in Europe through strategic acquisitions of companies and complementary expertise. This will help the company to broaden the product portfolio and consolidate Europe’s industrial base in critical microelectronics.

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