Chip Software Firm Silvaco’s Shares Rise Up to 14% After IPO

Bailey Lipschultz and Amy Or, Bloomberg News

Silicon wafers during the Intel AI Everywhere launch event in New York, US, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Intel Corp. announced new chips for PCs and data centers that the company hopes will give it a bigger slice of the booming market for artificial intelligence hardware. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Silvaco Group Inc. shares rose 4.2% in the company’s debut after an initial public offering that raised $114 million, pricing at the top of a marketed range.

Shares in the chip-design software company closed at $19.80 each in New York on Thursday. The company had marketed the stock for $17 to $19 apiece.

The trading gives Silvaco a market value of $565 million based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The listing comes as the recovery in the US IPO market broadens beyond large household names like Reddit Inc. that had been waiting for their window.

“This is the first time the market has opened for small-cap companies and we wanted to have the first opportunity to get out there because we have a feeling that the market is going to start picking up more as we get closer to September and October,” said Babak Taheri, chief executive officer of Silvaco.

Founded in 1984, the Santa Clara, California-based company makes electronic design automation software for semiconductor and photonics companies, the filings show. Silvaco also provides intellectual property for software on the chips.

Silvaco had a net loss of about $316,000 on revenue of $54.2 million in 2023, compared with a net loss of around $3.9 million on revenue of $46.5 million a year earlier, according to the filings. Customers in Asia accounted for about 60% of the company’s revenue in 2022 and 2023.

After the IPO, Katherine Ngai-Pesic, chair of the board of directors, and members of her family are set to hold the majority of shareholder voting power.

The offering was led by Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and TD Cowen. The shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SVCO.