US-based silicon photonics chip startup Ayar Labs has raised an additional $25m in funding in a Series C1 funding round.
The latest round, which was led by Capital TEN, brings the total Series C funding to $155m.
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The C1 round also saw participation from VentureTech Alliance and existing investors Boardman Bay Capital Management, IAG Capital Partners, NVIDIA, and Tyche Partners.
Boardman Bay Capital Management led the initial $130m Series C round in April 2022.
Ayar Labs has developed a technology that uses light to transfer data between chips instead of electricity.
The optical connectivity solutions aid in overcoming the constraints of copper interconnects in terms of performance, power consumption, and distance, explained Ayar Labs.
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By GlobalDataThe new technology can be used in latency-sensitive areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning.
In addition, the technology is expected to impact various sectors that rely on fast data transfer, including cloud and data centres, telecommunications, as well as aerospace and defence industries.
Ayar Labs will use the funding to accelerate the commercial launch of its optical I/O solutions.
The proceeds will also be used to support the expansion of Ayar Labs’ product portfolio and bolster its ongoing development efforts.
Ayar Labs CEO Charles Wuischpard said: “This C1 adds sophisticated investor partners that will allow us to accelerate our strategic roadmap, and is further validation of our technology and plan to bring silicon photonics-based interconnect solutions to market at scale.”
Applied Ventures, GlobalFoundries, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Intel Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures have also invested in Ayar Labs.
Capital TEN general partner Pin-Nan Tseng said: “We believe that future computing solutions will include large-scale use of silicon photonics for data communications, and have been following Ayar Labs for some time now.
“Given our deep expertise in the semiconductor industry and the Taiwan semiconductor ecosystem, we believe Ayar Labs has the technology solution, people, capital, and broad support to lead in the transition from copper to optical interconnects for scale-out computing and memory applications.”
