Wave Photonics Secures £4.5M for Light-Based Chip Development
Wave Photonics, a Cambridge-based deep tech start-up, has secured £4.5M to enable the widespread deployment of light-based chips. The funding will be used to develop on-chip photonics designs for quantum technologies, sensors, and datacentre applications. The investment round was led by the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, with participation from Redstone and QAI Ventures’ Quantum Fund, Kyra Ventures, and Deep Tech Labs, bringing the total funding to date to £5.4M.
Integrated photonics, which uses the same scalable process as semiconductor electronics chips to make circuits for light, is being embraced for a wide range of applications including energy-efficient communications, wearable healthcare sensors, optical tensor processors, and quantum computing.
However, the process of taking a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) from concept to mass production is lengthy and expensive. Wave Photonics, founded in May 2021 by Cambridge Quantum Photonics PhDs James Lee and Matthew Anderson, along with CTO Mateusz Kubica, aims to reduce this product development time and unlock the transformative potential of integrated photonics.
This latest investment will allow Wave Photonics to transition from a research manufacturing line to a commercial foundry, with a focus on solutions for frontier applications such as quantum technologies and biosensing. CEO James Lee expressed excitement about deploying their design technology to address real industry challenges. Mark White, UKI2S Investment Director, commended the company's innovative approach to integrated photonics design, while Dr. Christine Martin of Cambridge Enterprise Ventures highlighted the potential for Wave Photonics to accelerate the adoption of next-generation integrated photonics products in industries ranging from quantum computing to bio-sensing.
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