- £23M Series A extension will accelerate commercialisation of photonic computing chips and US expansion.
- Technology integrates data movement and processing on one chip, boosting performance while cutting energy use.
- Focus on secure workloads, including fully homomorphic encryption for next-generation cloud infrastructure.
Optalysys, a photonic computing company developing next-generation hardware for advanced AI and secure cloud workloads, announced a £23 million 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 funding will support commercialisation of proprietary photonic chips and expansion into the US market.
As AI and cloud computing demands continue to rise, traditional electronic architectures are approaching physical and energy-efficiency limits. Optalysys integrates data movement and processing on a single chip by combining silicon photonics with advanced digital technologies, delivering high computational performance while reducing energy consumption and carbon impact.
Optalysys is building a programmable, high-density computing layer designed for demanding workloads such as GenAI and post-quantum algorithms, forming a core component of future cloud infrastructure. A key focus area is fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), which enables computation on encrypted data. Early FHE implementations are already deployed in LightLocker™ Node servers launched last year, described as the world’s first dedicated hardware solution for encrypted blockchain applications.
Dr Nick New, CEO and Co-Founder of Optalysys, said: “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.”
Robert Todd, CTO and Co-Founder of Optalysys, said: “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.”
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, said: “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.”