Insider Brief
- OpenLight, a leader in custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit design, has raised $50 million in an oversubscribed Series A-1 round led by Matter Venture Partners, bringing its total funding to $84 million.
- The company’s platform integrates indium phosphide and silicon photonics into a single chip, with its process design kit already used by more than 25 companies to design and fabricate custom chips across AI infrastructure, automotive, medical, and quantum computing applications.
- The new funding will be used to expand OpenLight’s component library, accelerate development of high-speed photonic integrated circuits at 1.6T and 3.2T, and scale its global sales and technical support operations.
PRESS RELEASE — OpenLight, the world leader in custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC) design leveraging its patented heterogeneous silicon photonics process, announced it has raised an additional $50 million in a Series A-1 round, bringing the company’s total funding to $84 million. The financing reflects growing commercial momentum and accelerating customer adoption across AI infrastructure, automotive and industrial sensing, medical and quantum computing applications.
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.
“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,” said Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner at Matter Venture Partners.
OpenLight’s process design kit (PDK), built on the heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics, provides customers with a comprehensive library of passive and active components — including integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors. Validated at leading photonics foundry Tower Semiconductor, its PDK ensures 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. Today, 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. The strong interest from leaders across the semiconductor industry underscores the momentum behind OpenLight’s technology and vision,” said Adam Carter, President and CEO of OpenLight. “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 company 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.
About OpenLight
OpenLight is the world leader in custom PASIC design.
OpenLight’s world-leading PASiC technology, supported by its process design kit (PDK), integrates all active and passive components of silicon photonics devices into a single chip, enabling high-performance, energy-efficient photonics solutions across datacom, telecom, automotive, AI, and quantum computing applications and markets.
The company secured Series A funding in August 2025 and this, combined with its 400+ strong patent portfolio is enabling OpenLight to bring optical solutions to places it has never been before and underpin technologies and innovation that weren’t previously possible. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, with offices in Silicon Valley.
Read more at www.openlightphotonics.com
About Matter Venture Partners
Matter Venture Partners is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building the most advanced semiconductor, electronics, and Physical AI innovations. With decades of operational expertise and deep strategic relationships, Matter Venture Partners pairs technical insight with long-term conviction to help scale category-defining HardTech startups.
About Acclimate Ventures
Acclimate Ventures supports startups transforming how AI is built, scaled and delivered. We make early-stage investments in enabling technologies for data centers and AI infrastructure, and then partner to accelerate product innovation, market expansion and commercial scale-up.
About Catapult
Catapult Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based deep-tech venture capital firm investing in companies at the intersection of hardware, embedded systems, and software. With over three decades of combined operational experience, Catapult’s team brings an operator’s perspective to backing bold founders disrupting massive industries through innovations in AI, automation, robotics, IoT, and photonics. The firm’s portfolio includes investments in leading photonics and sensing companies like Anello Photonics, alongside notable exits such as Xnor.ai (acquired by Apple) and Oculii (acquired by Ambarella).
Contacts
Mallory Robertson
Mallory@grandbridges.com
