Optalysys, the photonic computing company, has raised £23 million in a Series A extension round led by Northern Gritstone with participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). The investment will be used to accelerate the commercialisation of Optalysys’ proprietary photonic chips and support expansion into the US.
As AI and cloud workloads continue to grow exponentially, conventional electronic computing is reaching its physical limits. Optalysys’ approach integrates data movement and processing on a single chip, combining silicon photonics with digital technologies to deliver increased computational power while reducing the carbon footprint of energy-intensive digital methods.
Optalysys is 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 application is fully homomorphic encryption, which allows data to be processed securely while remaining encrypted. Early forms of this technology are being used in Optalysys’ LightLocker™ Node servers launched last year, a dedicated hardware solution designed for encrypted blockchain applications.
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. 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.
Nick New, Co-founder & CEO
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. 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.
Robert Todd, Co-founder & CTO
Optalysys is scaling towards global success. The company is building technology for the next generation of computing and has the team, technology and commercial traction that we, as investors, want. We’re excited to support the team as they continue to commercialise their technology and deliver real-world impact across multiple industries.
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone
