French Chipmaker NanoXplore Raises €20 Million to Expand Into Defence and Boost Europe’s Electronic Sovereignty
The funding round was backed by European defence group MBDA and the Defence Innovation Fund, managed by Bpifrance
French fabless chip designer NanoXplore has raised €20 million in new funding to accelerate its expansion into the defence sector and support strategic growth initiatives across Europe. The capital will be used to develop security-focused products and advance the company’s ambition to strengthen Europe’s electronic sovereignty.
The funding round was backed by European defence group MBDA and the Defence Innovation Fund, managed by Bpifrance.
“As an independent French company, we have demonstrated that it is possible to design and produce state-of-the-art electronic chips in Europe,” said Édouard Lepape, CEO of NanoXplore. “This funding allows us to go further speeding up our diversification into defence with products tailored for these markets, while continuing a strategy of targeted acquisitions across Europe. Our goal is clear: to position NanoXplore as a reference player in European electronic sovereignty.”
Founded in 2013, NanoXplore is a family-owned, independent fabless IC design company specializing in radiation-hardened components supported by a full software suite. The company designs FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) programmable and reconfigurable integrated circuits engineered to withstand radiation making them suitable for extreme environments such as space and defence applications.
Earlier this year, NanoXplore unveiled NG-ULTRA, which it describes as the world’s most advanced rad-hard SoC FPGA (System-on-Chip Field-Programmable Gate Array).
Beyond high-reliability components, NanoXplore positions itself as a key contributor to European electronic sovereignty. The company relies on a 100% European supply chain, including chip manufacturing, allowing it to label its products as “ITAR-free.” This designation means NanoXplore’s technology is not subject to U.S. defence export regulations under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
NanoXplore’s technology is already deployed in major European space programs, including Galileo and Copernicus, offering a sovereign alternative to non-European components.
"This investment is perfectly consistent with the Defence Innovation Fund's mission," said Nicolas Berdou, Investment Director at Bpifrance. "NanoXplore illustrates what we hope to support in innovative French SMEs: mastering key enabling technologies that are fundamental for our sovereignty and contributing, through technological independence in strategic domains such as micro-electronics, to the independence of Europe."
Additionally, with this new investment, NanoXplore aims to rapidly transition from space applications into the Defence market by designing next-generation components including secured FPGAs and ultra-low power technology, besides leveraging these technologies in land, airborne, and naval applications. Moreover, NanoXplore aims to acquire strategically important companies in Europe.
