Tusk IC Raises €15 Million in Antwerp to Mass-Produce Satellite-Antenna Chips

Antwerp-based semiconductor startup Tusk IC raised €15 million in Series A funding led by Matterwave Ventures, Forward.one and the Flanders Future Tech Fund, with existing investors and the Schaubroeck family also participating.

Tusk designs beamformer chips for electronically steered Ka-band satellite antennas. Rather than physically rotating a dish to track a satellite, these antennas steer their signal across many small antenna elements electronically, letting a terminal track low- and medium-Earth-orbit satellites even while the terminal itself is moving, a capability that matters increasingly as satellite broadband expands beyond specialized aircraft and maritime terminals toward a much larger connectivity market.

The company has produced roughly a hundred prototype chips to date. The new Series A funds the considerably harder next step: scaling from prototype volumes into production runs potentially measured in millions of units, which requires process tuning, extensive testing programs, packaging, assembly and quality control capable of holding performance steady across normal manufacturing variation. Tusk says it is already working with a major satellite-communications equipment manufacturer to integrate its chips into a new electronically steered antenna product, giving the company a concrete commercial path from prototype toward volume manufacturing rather than a purely speculative production ramp.

The broader bet behind Tusk's raise is straightforward: if electronically steered antennas can be made cheaper, flatter and easier to manufacture at scale, terminal economics could become nearly as important to satellite broadband adoption as the satellites themselves. Chip-level cost reductions at the terminal layer could meaningfully widen who can afford satellite connectivity, extending the addressable market well beyond today's aviation, maritime and enterprise customers.

Tusk's raise also reflects a broader European pattern of deep-tech and semiconductor investment increasingly tied to questions of technological and strategic independence, alongside pure commercial opportunity. A domestic beamformer chip supplier gives European satellite terminal makers an alternative to sourcing this specific component elsewhere, a consideration that is shaping deep-tech capital allocation across the continent this year.

The investor syndicate itself is a useful signal for other European deep-tech founders raising Series A rounds in hard-tech categories. Matterwave Ventures and Forward.one both specialize in early-stage industrial and deep-tech investing, while the Flanders Future Tech Fund brings regional government-linked capital specifically targeted at strengthening Belgium's technology base, and the participation of the Schaubroeck family, a longstanding Belgian industrial family, adds a strategic, patient-capital dimension not always present in venture-only rounds. That mix of specialist venture, regional public capital and industrial family money is increasingly common in European semiconductor financing, where the capital intensity of moving from prototype to production volume often exceeds what a pure venture syndicate alone is willing to underwrite.

Founders building semiconductor, satellite or connectivity infrastructure can find relevant investors through AngelLinx's match tool and browse active opportunities on the live listing. Learn how Series A rounds are typically structured in our learn center, explore the full investor directory, or catch up on more funding coverage in the newsroom. Ready to raise your own round? Register on AngelLinx.

AngelLinx Intelligence | angellinx.ai