News: Optoelectronics
29 April 2026
OpenLight secures $50m in Series A-1 funding, boosting total raised to $84m
Photonic application-specific integrated circuit (PASIC) chip designer and manufacturer OpenLight of Goleta, Santa Barbara, CA, USA (which launched as an independent company in 2022, introducing the first open silicon photonics platform with heterogeneously integrated III-V lasers, modulators, amplifiers and detectors) has raised an additional $50m in a Series A-1 round. Including the $34m Series A funding secured in August 2025, total funding is now $84m.
The financing reflects growing commercial momentum and accelerating customer adoption across AI infrastructure, automotive & industrial sensing, medical and quantum computing applications, says the firm.
The oversubscribed round was led by Matter Venture Partners, with participation from new investors Acclimate Ventures and Catapult Ventures, alongside existing investors Xora Innovation, Capricorn Investment Group, Mayfield, and New Legacy.
“Optical technology is critical to the future scaling of data centers and AI infrastructure,” notes Matter Venture Partners’ founding managing partner Wen Hsieh. “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,” he believes.
Built on the heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics, OpenLight’s process design kit (PDK) provides a comprehensive library of passive and active components — including integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers and detectors. Validated at photonics foundry Tower Semiconductor, its PDK ensures that designs are production-ready from day one.
Using these proven building blocks, customers can develop custom PASICs that simplify advanced chip design and accelerate time to market. Currently, more than 25 companies use the OpenLight PDK to design and fabricate PASICs across a broad range of applications. OpenLight holds over 410 patents covering its PDK and the manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics.
“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,” says OpenLight’s president & CEO Adam Carter. “The strong interest from leaders across the semiconductor industry underscores the momentum behind OpenLight’s technology and vision,” he adds. “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.”
The new funding will further accelerate the expansion of OpenLight’s PDK library of active and passive photonics components — including its leading-edge 400G modulator and indium phosphide heterogeneously integrated on-chip laser technology. The firm will also ramp up development of standards-based reference photonic integrated circuits (PICs) at 1.6T and 3.2T, delivering the industry’s most flexible and advanced component design libraries.
OpenLight receives first volume production orders Tower’s PH18DA InP-on-silicon photonic platform
OpenLight raises $34m in Series A funding round to scale integrated photonics for AI data centers
