Lucidean, a Santa Barbara, California–based AI interconnect company developing coherent optical links for data centers, has raised $18 million in Seed financing and appointed Dr. James Raring as chief executive officer.
The Seed round was co-led by Entrada Ventures and Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), with participation from Foothill Ventures, M Ventures, Cerberus Ventures, and Raptor Group. The company said it will use the capital to expand R&D, validate the performance and efficiency of its CohZero™ platform, and accelerate productization.
Lucidean is targeting a long-standing constraint in data-center networking: the tradeoff between lower-cost intensity-modulation direct-detection (IMDD) links, which are generally suited to shorter reaches, and traditional coherent optics, which can deliver higher performance but typically require more expensive, power-hungry components and digital signal processing. The company positions CohZero™ as a new class of “coherent-lite” interconnect aimed at delivering “coherent-class” reach and link budget while maintaining IMDD-like simplicity, cost, and power.
According to Lucidean, CohZero™ is designed to operate within the existing IMDD ecosystem, including compatibility with IMDD-class lasers already widely deployed, simplified DSPs that can align with IMDD DSP approaches, and standard pluggable module architectures. The architecture is also intended to support both retimed and non-retimed deployments, including co-packaged optics, while reducing sensitivity to fiber impairments and enabling higher data rates without requiring tight wavelength control or disruptive physical-layer redesigns.
The company is developing 3.2 Tbps and 6.4 Tbps transceivers for AI-driven fabrics and data-center interconnect use cases, reflecting the rising bandwidth demands of large-scale AI/ML training and inference clusters.
Raring joins Lucidean’s co-founders and co-CTOs Dr. Hector Andrade and Dr. Aaron Maharry, as well as academic co-founders Dr. Clint Schow and Dr. Larry Coldren. Lucidean said Raring has been closely engaged with the company’s leadership through its recent evolution. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Kyocera SLD Laser, where he led development and commercialization of high-brightness GaN laser-light sources for automotive and specialty lighting markets. Earlier in his career, he developed what the company described as the first single-chip 40 Gb/s all-optical transceiver. Lucidean said Raring holds more than 300 patents.
Investors backing the round framed Lucidean’s approach as a response to AI-driven networking demands that are stressing legacy optical solutions. The company’s next phase will focus on hiring, hardware demonstrations, and progressing from technical validation toward product readiness.
KEY QUOTES:
“Lucidean is addressing a critical gap in the optical-interconnect market where existing intensity-modulation direct-detection (IMDD) and coherent solutions will both fall short.” “With CohZero™, the company delivers coherent-class performance within the simplicity and power envelope of IMDD, backed by a uniquely capable technical and leadership team poised to tackle AI-scale networking.”
Dr. Alexander Fang, Managing Partner, Entrada Ventures
“AI networks are outgrowing legacy optical approaches.” “CohZero™ delivers coherent-class optical links with zero overhead.” “Our recent seed funding and strong syndicate of investors perfectly positions Lucidean for our next phase of growth where we will accelerate hiring and expand our capabilities to rapidly demonstrate our value proposition in hardware and move towards productization.”
Dr. James Raring, Chief Executive Officer, Lucidean
“KDT is excited to co-lead Lucidean’s latest funding round as the company scales a breakthrough technology for next-generation AI and cloud networks.” “CohZero™ delivers coherent-class reach and bandwidth within IMDD-like cost and power envelopes, offering a clear path to ultra-high-capacity interconnects at AI scale.” “Lucidean is exceptionally well-positioned to redefine optical performance for modern data centers.”
Isaac Sigron, Managing Director, KDT Israel (affiliate of Koch Disruptive Technologies)
