Tessolve Raises $150Mn from TPG to Scale Labs, Delivery Centres

Tessolve, the Hero Electronix-owned semiconductor engineering services firm, has secured $150 million in growth capital from global alternative asset manager TPG Growth, the companies said on Thursday.

The funding will be used to strengthen Tessolve’s global delivery centres, expand advanced test labs and accelerate strategic acquisitions as it seeks to cement its role in the worldwide semiconductor value chain.

Jefferies acted as the adviser to Tessolve and its shareholders, while Rothschild advised TPG on the transaction. Existing backers, including Novo Tellus Capital Partners, which invested $40 million in 2021, and parent company Hero Electronix remain significant shareholders in the company.

Strategic scale

Tessolve positions itself as one of the world’s largest independent semiconductor engineering services firms, with more than 3,000 engineers, 11 test and embedded labs and offices across India, the US, Europe and Southeast Asia.

The company says it serves 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor firms and has grown revenue from about $25m in FY16 to over $150m in FY25. TPG’s capital is aimed at helping Tessolve capture more of the $550 billion global semiconductor market and accelerate support for AI and data-centre customers.

Ujjwal Munjal, vice-chairman of Hero Electronix and chairman of Tessolve, called the deal “a significant milestone” and said TPG’s partnership would help Tessolve “scale further and become a key player in the global semiconductor value chain.” Srini Chinamilli, CEO and co-founder, said the funding will bolster end-to-end capabilities from chip architecture and design to test development and embedded systems, and enable faster organic and inorganic growth.

Growth Plan

TPG Growth’s Bhushan Bopardikar said Tessolve has “grown from a test engineering lab to a full-scale semiconductor services provider” and that TPG is excited to back its next phase of expansion.

Tessolve plans to deploy the fresh capital by enlarging its global delivery footprint to better support customers across major markets, while also adding and upgrading test and embedded labs to help reduce customer time-to-market. The company will pursue targeted acquisitions aimed at filling capability gaps and broadening its service offerings, and intends to step up investments in R&D to advance work in cutting-edge domains such as AI accelerators, automotive technologies and data-centre chips.

Srini Chinamilli, Co-Founder & CEO, Tessolve, said, “Over the past couple decades, Tessolve has built deep capabilities throughout the semiconductor engineering value chain, from chip architecture, to design, test development and embedded systems. We are excited to welcome TPG as a partner as we look to accelerate our next phase of organic and inorganic growth, strengthen our R&D efforts, and reach new heights. This would not have been possible without the dedication of our worldwide team and the consistent backing of Hero Electronix and Novo Tellus as our partners.”

Background & Market Context

Hero Electronix bought Tessolve in 2016 and has backed its expansion into deep-tech services. Novo Tellus’s earlier $40m round and steady revenue growth have positioned Tessolve to attract a large strategic investor. The semiconductor sector’s strategic importance, fuelled by AI, automotive electrification and cloud demand, has increased appetite for engineering services that help chip companies move from design to production.

The deal also marks another example of private-equity interest in semiconductor supply-chain plays outside of pure manufacturing.

The $150m from TPG gives Tessolve firepower to scale capacity and M&A, reinforcing its bid to be a larger, end-to-end partner for chipmakers at a time when semiconductor engineering and test services are in high global demand.