Optalysys, a Leeds-based technology company specialising in photonic computing, has secured a £23m Series A extension investment to support its expansion to the US.
The firm’s offering is essentially combining silicon photonics with digital technologies, with data movement and processing on a single chip. The company claims this process can deliver immense computational power with a reduced carbon footprint.
Presently Optalysys is developing a programmable, high-density layer designed to run compute-intensive workloads, such as the kind used for generative AI and quantum algorithms.
Optalysys said that a key application of its technology is fully homomorphic encryption, which allows data to be processed securely whilst remaining encrypted.
“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,” said Dr Nick New, co-founder and chief executive of Optalysys.
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.”
Leading the funding round was Northern Gritstone, an investment firm specialising on tech firms in the north of England.
“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,” said Duncan Johnson, chief executive of Northern Gritstone.
“We’re excited to support the team as they continue to commercialise their technology and deliver real-world impact across multiple industries.”
Other participants in the round were imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF).
