Chipmaker Graphcore becomes unicorn as £200 million funding paves way for float

Chipmaker Graphcore has become the latest UK tech unicorn after raising $200 million (£159 million) in new funding as it works towards a stock-market float.

Chief executive Nigel Toon said an IPO could take place within the next two years, providing liquidity for its investors and employees, although he refused to set out an exact timeline.

He said: “It is something we are looking at but there is no rush. We plan to scale the business very quickly but have deliberately brought in patient capital investors to help us.”

Graphcore makes high-end chips that can be put into computers to make them faster at crunching data. The chips are specifically designed to accelerate machine learning, otherwise known as AI. Founded just two years ago, today’s funding values the company at $1.7 billion, meaning it joins fintech firms Monzo and Revolut as the latest UK companies to earn unicorn status. Unicorns are private companies valued at more than $1 billion.

The round saw BMW and Microsoft join the investor base, while existing investors Dell Technologies and Robert Bosch Venture Capital also took part. Goldman Sachs was brought in to advise.

The company, headquartered in Bristol, plans to use the money to open offices in Beijing and Hsinchu, Taiwan. Since its last financing a year ago its staff has increased from 75 to 200.

Toon argues that the chips designed for the PC age, mostly made by Intel and Nvidia, are no longer good enough, adding that more tailored solutions are required to achieve better speed.

The chips are particularly useful for power-intensive tasks such as AI in cloud computing as well as for autonomous vehicles.

Graphcore’s customers include Dell and Samsung and the company says it plans to hit $50 million in revenue next year.