DENTRESSANGLE Capital announced exclusive talks to acquire French chip-services company Presto Engineering on 5 July 2024; a later corporate statement said the acquisition was finalized, with Garibaldi Participations joining as a minority co-investor. The purchase price, closing date and full legal structure were not disclosed. The deal gives Dentressangle a platform in the specialized business of designing and managing production of custom chips.
What Presto Engineering does
Presto develops application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs: chips designed for a particular product or use rather than sold as general-purpose components. It also manages much of the path from a customer’s requirements to production-ready parts.
That “wall-to-wall” service can include circuit design and industrialization, coordinating foundry fabrication and outsourced assembly and test, production testing, yield and quality management, logistics, and delivery support. Presto works with foundries including GlobalFoundries, STMicroelectronics and X-Fab. Its technical areas include low-power RF connectivity, sensors, analogue and mixed-signal circuits, and secure cryptographic applications.
The company serves OEMs and other product makers in automotive, industrial, healthcare, telecommunications and IoT markets. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Meyreuil, France, it had about 150 employees worldwide and facilities in Europe, North America and Asia, according to the 2024 transaction announcement.
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- Air Cooling & Low Noise Operation – This air-cooled ASIC development board runs at 50dB, maintaining stable temperature during long testing sessions.
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Why Dentressangle is buying it
Presto offers a way to invest in semiconductor demand without buying a chip fabrication plant. Its role is to help customers design and bring specialized chips into production, while coordinating with manufacturing and testing partners. For a product company, that can mean a single supplier manages several technically demanding steps rather than the customer arranging each one independently.
Dentressangle described Presto as a base for consolidating a fragmented European ASIC sector. The stated growth rationale combines increased chip needs in connected and electrified vehicles, industrial automation, medical equipment, IoT and AI-related applications with concern about Europe’s reliance on semiconductor production in Asia. Presto’s growth plan included expanding design capability, pursuing acquisitions and increasing organic growth.
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The transaction announcement cited the following market and company figures. These are figures presented by the named sources, not independently audited measurements in the available reporting.
| Figure | What it refers to | Attribution and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| €1.4 billion | Estimated European ASIC market | DENTRESSANGLE/Presto transaction announcement, 2024 |
| 7–8% a year | Estimated annual growth of the European ASIC market | DENTRESSANGLE/Presto transaction announcement, 2024 |
| €43 billion | European Union semiconductor-capacity investment plan cited in the announcement | DENTRESSANGLE/Presto transaction announcement, 2024; this is the plan figure cited by the parties, not Presto funding |
| About 150 | Presto employees worldwide | DENTRESSANGLE/Presto transaction announcement, 2024 |
| €50–55 million | Approximate Presto revenue at the time of the deal announcement | EE Times Europe reporting in 2024 |
| €60 million | Presto’s target revenue for 2025 | Target reported by EE Times Europe in 2024; not a reported result |
| €3.3 billion | Dentressangle net asset value | Dentressangle figure stated in 2024 transaction coverage; it is not Presto’s valuation or the acquisition price |
What “ASIC one-stop shop” means
An ASIC supplier may do only part of the work, such as chip design, while the customer coordinates fabrication, packaging, testing and production support with other providers. A one-stop shop aims to manage more of that chain, from specification and design through industrialization and delivery of production parts.
The label does not mean Presto owns every facility involved. The company’s described model includes coordinating with foundries and outsourced assembly-and-test partners. When assessing any ASIC supplier, buyers should establish exactly which work it performs itself, which tasks it manages through partners, and who is accountable for production yield, quality and delivery.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is the acquisition complete, and what did it cost?
The chronology matters: the 5 July 2024 announcement described exclusive talks, not a completed acquisition. A later corporate statement said the acquisition was finalized and named Garibaldi Participations as a minority co-investor. The sources available here do not state the closing date or full legal structure.
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The purchase price was not disclosed. EE Times Europe’s report that Presto was targeting €60 million in 2025 revenue is a company revenue target, not a transaction valuation. Dentressangle’s stated €3.3 billion net asset value likewise says nothing by itself about the amount paid for Presto.
Who will lead Presto after the deal?
Cédric Mayor was Presto Engineering Group’s CEO and invested alongside Dentressangle. The announced strategy was to accelerate growth, expand ASIC design capability and use acquisitions to build a European consolidation platform. Those are stated plans; the available transaction information does not establish which acquisitions or operating changes have since occurred.
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