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 the volume of venture deals appeared to slow in November, the diversity of technologies that were funded highlights the broad applicability of photonics across various industries.
Quantum computing is again on the list. In recent months we have seen deals for quantum processor technologies that rely on photonics, such as qubits built from photonic integrated circuits (see the August and September Photonics VC Updates) or qubits based on neutral atoms arrays cooled by lasers (see the October Photonics VC Update). However, scaling most of these technologies will require interconnecting many such processors while maintaining quantum information. To address this challenge, Lightsynq, a Massachusetts-based startup with ties to Harvard and AWS, announced a $18M Series A led by Cerberus Ventures and joined by several other firms. The funds will be used to develop integrated diamond photonic circuit interconnects designed for networking quantum processors.
Interconnects for classical processors, particularly GPUs in AI clusters, headlined last month’s update led by Lightmatter, which interestingly initially was focused on using integrated photonics to do the processing before pivoting to interconnecting electronic processors. This month, Akhetonic, a German company, announced a €6M Seed round led by Matterwave Ventures to build an all-optical XPU using a new approach.
LiDAR was an active area for the third consecutive month (see the September and October Photonics VC Updates), with German startup Xavveo securing a $8.6M Seed round co-led by Vsquared Ventures and imec.xpand to develop a silicon photonics-based solution.
Vsquared Ventures also partnered with Point72 Ventures to lead a €8.5M Seed round for another German startup, Quantune, which is developing noninvasive glucose monitoring solutions based on a miniaturized quantum-cascade laser spectrometer.
In the display technology space, Cambridge University spinout AllFocal Optics raised a $3.6M round led by SpeedInvest for its thin nanophotonic lenses that enable better augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences.
Finally, although terms were not disclosed, ANELLO Photonics gets a mention for its Series B co-led by Lockheed Martin, Catapult Ventures, and One Madison Group with a long list of participating other firms since it lets us score one more commercial application: optical gyroscopes, which the company is producing on its integrated silicon photonics platform.
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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.