Belgian chip startup TUSK IC has raised €15 million in Series A funding to commercialize standard-CMOS beamformer chips for Ka-band satellite terminals, a step that matters because one of satcom’s biggest bottlenecks is still on the ground. Satellites and constellations may get most of the attention, but broadband economics depend heavily on whether electronically steered antennas can be built cheaply, efficiently and in volume.
The reader’s real question is not whether TUSK can design a promising chip. It is whether standard CMOS can make flat-panel Ka-band terminals practical enough for mass deployment, and what must happen between a funded prototype and repeatable shipments. TUSK’s round suggests investors see a credible path. It does not yet answer the tougher questions on RF performance, yield, thermal behavior or terminal-level cost.
Why the beamformer matters
TUSK, an Antwerp-based fabless semiconductor spinout from KU Leuven’s MICAS mmWave group, sells into a specific pain point. Its ConnectKa portfolio spans beamformer ICs, antenna modules and development platforms for electronically steerable flat-panel antennas aimed at LEO and MEO satellite networks.
The beamformer is the control layer inside that antenna. By setting phase and amplitude across many antenna elements, it lets a flat panel steer a beam electronically instead of turning a mechanically pointed dish. That makes it central to consumer terminals, enterprise links, satcom-on-the-move systems, maritime equipment and some defense uses.
It is also where the manufacturing challenge gets real. Ka-band can support high-capacity links, but it is unforgiving: loss, weather attenuation, heat and small manufacturing variations all matter. A commercial terminal needs more than a working RF chip. It also needs RF front ends, calibration, power conversion, tracking software, thermal management and a verified link budget that holds up outside the lab.
TUSK’s thesis is that standard CMOS can improve the cost, power and scale equation versus SiGe and specialty-CMOS approaches that are already established in today’s satcom terminals. If that holds, it could widen the supplier base and lower the bill of materials for antenna makers. But mainstream process economics alone do not settle the issue. A low-cost die can lose its advantage quickly if packaging, testing, calibration or heat removal become expensive or inconsistent.
What the €15 million changes
In its funding announcement, TUSK said the €15 million Series A was led by Matterwave Ventures, FORWARD.one and the Flanders Future Tech Fund managed by PMV, with participation from the Schaubroeck family and existing investors. The company said the money will help commercialize its standard-CMOS beamformer ICs for Ka-band satellite communications and move from prototype chips toward high-volume production.
That shift in emphasis is the news. TUSK already had a public roadmap pointing to Ka-band beamforming ICs in 2025, 4×4 active-antenna evaluation kits and flat-panel demonstrators in 2026, and mass-volume production from 2027 onward. Its milestones page also says it has prototype-manufacturing experience and two pilot customers for its ConnectKa chips. The new round is meaningful because it is aimed at the expensive middle stage between “it works” and “customers can buy it at predictable cost.”
TUSK also said it is working with an unnamed leading satcom manufacturer on a new electronically steered array antenna, and it cited an ESA contract supported by BELSPO under ESA’s ARTES industrial-competitiveness program. A PMV investment notice corroborates the investor group, the prototype-to-industrial-scale goal and the ESA/BELSPO support.
Those are real progress signals, especially for European buyers who care about strategic autonomy around future programs such as IRIS². A capable regional supplier of beamforming silicon and modules would matter. Still, none of this is the same as a named design win, a qualified production part or evidence that a finished terminal is already cheaper.
What buyers still need to see
For antenna makers, the next phase is less about the elegance of the architecture than the discipline of manufacturing. TUSK has not publicly identified its foundry, process node, tape-out status, wafer or package cost, production yield, unit-price target, thermal envelope, power draw, beam-steering accuracy, noise figure, output power, data rate, weather performance or measured link-budget results. It has not named the leading manufacturer it is working with or its two pilot customers, and it has not disclosed volume commitments, purchase orders, qualification dates or a deployment timetable.
That leaves a practical proof checklist.
First, buyers will want independent RF and thermal measurements, not just company-reported milestones. For Ka-band hardware, repeatable performance under temperature swings and rain conditions matters as much as peak lab results. Second, they will want lot-level evidence: yield across production wafers, calibration repeatability across packaged parts and test methods that scale beyond engineering samples. Third, they will want system compatibility—how the chips behave inside target antennas, with target networks and under the software stack used for tracking and calibration.
The requirements rise further in mobility and defense applications. Qualification standards, environmental hardening, supply continuity and lifecycle support can differ sharply from what a consumer or enterprise terminal needs. One beamformer family may address several markets over time, but buyers should not assume the same profile fits home broadband, maritime equipment, satcom-on-the-move and defense terminals equally well.
The biggest commercial test may be the least glamorous one: the economics of the complete terminal. A cheaper beamformer IC does not automatically produce an affordable flat-panel antenna if power conversion, cooling, RF chains, assembly or calibration remain costly. Nor does an ESA-backed development program prove recurring revenue. What this round does is give TUSK more room to attack those problems with real customers and production-oriented workflows rather than laboratory prototypes.
For now, the fairest reading is that TUSK has raised enough capital to make its standard-CMOS argument testable at industrial depth. That is significant in a market where the ground segment often decides whether satellite broadband scales. The next proof point is not another financing announcement. It is a measured, qualified and manufacturable antenna subsystem that customers can price, validate and ship.
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