OpenLight Raises $34M in Series A, Accelerates Heterogeneous Integration Photonics.

OpenLight, a leader in custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC) chip design and manufacturing, has closed an oversubscribed $34M Series A funding round co-led by Xora Innovation and Capricorn Investment Group. The funding marks OpenLight's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to a high-velocity, venture-backed company. The round also includes participation from Mayfield, Juniper Networks, Lam Capital, New Legacy Ventures, and K2 Access. OpenLight's PDK gives customers access to a library of passive and active components, accelerating time-to-market and enabling scaled manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics.

OpenLight, a leading innovator in custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC) chip design and manufacturing, has closed an oversubscribed $34M Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Xora Innovation and Capricorn Investment Group, with participation from Mayfield, Juniper Networks (now part of HPE), Lam Capital, New Legacy Ventures, and K2 Access. This funding marks OpenLight's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to a high-velocity, venture-backed company [1].

The funding will enable OpenLight to expand its Process Design Kit (PDK) library, which includes passive and active components, and to accelerate the time-to-market for its products. The company's PDK, validated at leading photonics foundry Tower Semiconductor, provides customers with production-ready designs from day one. OpenLight's PDK is already in use by over 20 companies across various applications, including telecom, automotive, and industrial sensing [1].

The new capital injection will also support OpenLight's R&D efforts and scale its team to support customers in transitioning to volume production over the next 12 months. "With this strong syndicate of investors, we can push the boundaries of innovation and deliver transformative solutions to our customers," said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight [1].

The funding round reflects the growing demand for faster and more energy-efficient data movement in AI data center networks, where integrated photonics is emerging as a core enabler. "One of the critical challenges for the photonics industry in the back half of this decade will be achieving scale, and we see OpenLight's PDK as an important part of the solution," said Phil Inagaki, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Xora [1].

OpenLight's technology addresses the shift from electrical to optical interconnects, supporting AI-scale workloads and next-generation data center infrastructure. "Optical connectivity in data centers has become critical for next-generation scale-up and scale-out AI architectures," said Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner at Capricorn's Technology Impact Funds [1].

References:
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openlight-raises-34m-series-scale-100000685.html