OpenLight, a Santa Barbara-based photonics company and developer of custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, has raised $50 million in a Series A-1 round, bringing its total funding to $84 million. The oversubscribed round was led by Matter Venture Partners, with participation from new investors Acclimate Ventures and Catapult Ventures, alongside existing backers Xora Innovation, Capricorn Investment Group, Mayfield, and New Legacy.
OpenLight’s platform is built on the heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics, a patented approach that allows customers to design custom PASICs incorporating integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors on a single chip. The company’s process design kit is validated at Tower Semiconductor, ensuring designs are production-ready from day one. More than 25 companies currently use the OpenLight PDK to design and fabricate PASICs across AI data centers, telecommunications, automotive and industrial sensing, medical applications, and quantum computing. The company holds more than 410 patents covering its PDK and the manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics.
The new capital will accelerate expansion of the PDK library, including development of the company’s leading-edge 400G modulator and on-chip laser technology. OpenLight will also advance standards-based reference photonic integrated circuits at 1.6T and 3.2T, delivering what it describes as the industry’s most flexible and advanced component design libraries. The funding will also support worldwide sales expansion and technical support infrastructure.
OpenLight is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, with offices in Silicon Valley.
KEY QUOTES:
“We at Matter Venture Partners are excited to lead this OpenLight investment round. Optical technology is critical to the future scaling of data centers and AI infrastructure. We believe OpenLight’s heterogenous integrated silicon photonics platform will be the core ingredient to this worldwide global expansion of optical connectivity where power and bandwidth matter.”
Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner, Matter Venture Partners
“We are excited to have Wen Hsieh and the Matter Venture Partners team as part of OpenLight investors. Their connection to the semiconductor ecosystem will be a key asset as we scale our technology and customer base. The strong interest from leaders across the semiconductor industry underscores the momentum behind OpenLight’s technology and vision. This oversubscribed funding round adds highly sophisticated investor partners who will enable us to accelerate our strategic roadmap, expand worldwide sales and technical support, and bring heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits to global markets at scale.”
Adam Carter, President and CEO, OpenLight
