The Dutch contract manufacturer of photonic integrated circuits received 100 million euros in new financing

SMART Photonics, a Dutch contract manufacturer of photonic integrated circuits (PIC), today announced that it has secured a new round of funding of €100 million ($111 million) from a consortium of industry and financial investors in the Netherlands.

The growing company began as a spin-off of the Technical University of Eindhoven. The company said it will use debt financing to expand its manufacturing capabilities and accelerate the development of its PIC technology platform and process design suite.

In June, SMART Photonics announced that it has become a partner in the EU-funded photonixFAB program. The photonixFAB project will provide low-barrier access to SMART Photonics' ultra-low loss silicon nitride and silicon-based photonics platforms with indium phosphide heterogeneous integration capabilities.

This effort aims to promote innovation in the European silicon photonics industry and increase the dominance of the European semiconductor and photonics industry.

The new lenders include ASML, NXP and VDL Group, as well as financial institutions ING, BOP Impact Ventures and the Deep Tech Fund, which is part of the Investor-NL and partly funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

Previous investors including Innovation Industries, BOM, PhotonDelta and KPN Ventures also joined the round. The Dutch government will provide €60 million in public funds as part of the approved National Growth Fund project PhotonDelta. Last year PhotonDelta received more than €1 billion in public and private investment to support semiconductor development and manufacturing in the Netherlands.

Source: OFweek