HyperLight: Thin Film Lithium Niobate Provider Secures $37 Million (Series B)

By Amit Chowdhry • Sep 27, 2024

HyperLight, a leading provider of thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs), announced a $37 million Series B investment led by Summit Partners. This funding round includes participation from existing investors Xora Innovation, a deep tech venture fund backed by Temasek, and Foothill Ventures. Peter Chung, Managing Director and CEO of Summit Partners will join HyperLight’s Board of Directors.

The continuing need for more bandwidth and greater power efficiency—accelerated by AI—is driving the industry’s transition to next-generation photonics technology. Current PICs have performance limitations due to their material properties and have become bottlenecks for high-performance optical communication.

HyperLight’s TFLN PICs deliver unparalleled bandwidth and energy efficiency, well-aligned with the current and future needs of AI/data center infrastructure, telecommunications optical networks, and high-performance computing. Since its founding in 2018, HyperLight has delivered industrial-scale TFLN PICs with a trusted supply chain. This new funding allows the company to accelerate product development and meet rapidly growing customer demand.

KEY QUOTES:

“We believe TFLN will be the photonics platform of the future and identified HyperLight as an emerging category leader. The HyperLight team has established an impressive track record of pioneering innovation and strong execution. In a short time, the company has evolved this critical technology into market-ready products with a production-ready supply chain. We look forward to supporting the HyperLight team and working alongside the company’s current investors as they pursue their vision to build a category-defining company in photonics.”

-Peter Chung of Summit Partners

“We are thrilled to welcome Summit Partners as a new investor given their capabilities and deep experience in photonics, including investments in E-TEK Dynamics, Finisar, MACOM and Acacia Communications. This financing round, supported by investors with demonstrated experience in the photonics industry, will enhance our ability to serve the current and future needs of our customers as a trusted innovation partner. We are ready to serve the industry with high-speed and energy-efficient photonic IC solutions designed to enable the network of the future.”

-Mian Zhang, President and CEO of HyperLight Corporation