Early-stage European deals dominate photonics funding for January
Photonics VC Update is a monthly series to brief scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders about the venture funding of emerging companies in various photonics technologies.
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Although January was a relatively quiet month for venture deals in photonics, it was exciting to see the launch of a new photonics integration platform as Eindhoven-based PHOTON IP raised a €4.75M ($4.9M) Seed round to develop its technology for combining silicon and multiple optimized III-V materials for lasers, high-speed modulators, and photodetectors onto a single photonic chip. The round was led by Innovation Industries and followed by Faber and Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij and PhotonDelta.
Belgian startup Swave Photonics announced a €27M ($27.9M) Series A led by SFPIM Relaunch and imec.xpand, which included Murata Electronics and other institutional backers. The company is developing displays for augmented reality glasses based on technology originally spun out of IMEC in 2022.
iPronics, a startup developing software-defined photonic engines for AI data centers, raised a €20M ($20.7M) Series A. Triatomic Capital led the round and was followed by Fine Structure Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Criteria Venture Tech.
Finally, for the seventh month in a row, a quantum computing approach that leverages photonics received funding (we will count Lightsynq from the Aug. 2024 Photonics VC Update because its technology is key for scaling quantum computers). Swiss start up ZuriQ announced a €4M ($4.1M) Seed round led by Founderful, which included SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures, and QAI Ventures. The company is targeting trapped-ion quantum computers using static magnetic and electric fields instead of an oscillating electromagnetic field. In the ion trap approach, quantum states are controlled and read with pulses of laser light.
Eric Hall
Eric Hall is a managing partner of Entrada Ventures, a seed-stage fund investing in innovative technologies. He has worked alongside multiple Nobel Prize winners in building successful startups across various photonics technologies, including Aurrion (silicon photonics), Soraa (GaN LEDs), Kaai (GaN lasers), and Agility Communications (InP photonics), leading to multiple acquisitions. Subsequently, Hall led several transactions as an investment banker at Golding Partners before moving into early-stage investing. He earned his Bachelor of Science in engineering physics at UC Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School, and a PhD in materials at UC Santa Barbara.