LONDON — Electronic system level (ESL) design and synthesis vendor Celoxica plc is planning to float on the London Alternative Investment Market and expects to raise £10 million ($18 million), valuing the company at about £25 million ($45 million).

The funds raised from the flotation are targeted for research and development and expanding the sales force of the company, which is based near Oxford (England) and was a spun out in 2000 by engineers working on hardware compilation at Oxford University’s computing laboratory.

The prospectus is expected to be published in two to three weeks, Chris Sullivan, strategic director for alliances told EE Times .

Investors in the company include industrial partners such as Intel Capital, Xilinx and Wind River as well as venture capital groups Cazenove, Advent and Quester. Major customers include Toshiba, BAE Systems, Fujitsu and Canon, and the company says it has sold about 400 licences to over 100 customers.

The company employs 57 people at its offices in Oxford and sales outlets in the U.S. and Japan.

Last year, Celoxica reported sales of £3.4 million ($6.1 million) and said sales for the six months ended June 30 2005 were £2.3 million ($4.1 million), compared with £1.4 million for the corresponding half year of 2004.