Optalysys has raised £23m in Series A funding, led by Northern Gritstone.
The Leeds start-up works in photonic computing – using light (photons) instead of electricity for processing, which is both faster and more efficient.
The cash will be used to accelerate the commercialisation of its proprietary photonic chips and support its US expansion.
“We are at a defining moment in the evolution of computing. Photonic computing opens up fundamentally new capabilities, allowing data to be moved and processed with far greater speed and efficiency,” explained Dr Nick New, CEO and Co-Founder of Optalysys.
“This investment validates both the scale of the opportunity ahead and our ability to execute against it. It allows us to expand into new markets and take an important step towards making photonic computing a mainstream part of cloud infrastructure.”
Optalysys’ approach integrates data movement and processing on a single chip, combining silicon photonics with cutting-edge digital technologies “to deliver immense computational power whilst reducing the carbon footprint of today’s energy-intensive digital methods.”
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It’s now developing a programmable, high-density layer designed to run compute-intensive workloads, including GenAI and post-quantum algorithms, forming a foundation for next-generation cloud infrastructure.
One key application is fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), this allows data to be processed securely while remaining encrypted.
“Recent acquisitions in the semiconductor industry have highlighted the role that photonics can play in addressing the limits of electronic computing, particularly in processing capability and power consumption, resulting from the demands of training and running even larger AI models,” added Robert Todd, CTO and Co-Founder of Optalysys.
“Optalysys’ approach uniquely combines data movement and compute within the same package. Expanding to the US is an exciting and natural next step for us, so that we can tap into its strong photonics ecosystem and the immense talent located in Silicon Valley.”
The funding round was led by Northern Gritstone with participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF).
It’s the latest major fund raise by the company, which in 2023 secured £21m in a round also led by Northern Gritstone.
