SMART Photonics secures €100 million extra funding
Funds will help extend manufacturing and accelerate development of PIC technology platforms
SMART Photonics, the Dutch InP foundry for photonic integrated circuits, has secured an additional round of funding of €100 mln from a group of strategic industry and financial Dutch players.
Among the group of new lenders are semiconductor industry companies ASML, NXP and VDL Groep as well as the financial institutions ING, BOP Impact Ventures and Deep Tech Fund, which is part of Invest-NL (partly funded by the ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy).
Previous investors, including Innovation Industries, BOM, PhotonDelta and KPN Ventures have joined in this round again. The government of the Netherlands will provide € 60 mln public funding as part of the approved National Growth Fund project PhotonDelta as previously announced.
SMART Photonics will use the funds to extend its manufacturing capabilities and accelerate the development of the company’s photonic integrated chip technology platforms and its Process Design Kits (PDKs).
“We are very pleased to be supported by this new group of lenders and are grateful for the continued support of our existing investors”, comments Johan Feenstra, CEO of SMART Photonics. “With this round of funding, we receive strong support from the Dutch ecosystem including strategic lenders and financial institutions in our ambition to become the globally leading foundry for photonics integrated chips (PICs).”
Micky Adriaansens, a Netherlands minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy said: “We believe in the Netherlands as a leading international hub for the development of the fast growing integrated photonics industry. That’s why we invest both through the National Growth Fund project PhotonDelta in the whole ecosystem and through our dedicated Deep Tech Fund with specific funding for start-ups and scale-ups who focus on innovative complex technology such as SMART Photonics. For the prosperity and economic growth of the future and to maintain our competitiveness, it is necessary that we develop innovative key technologies like integrated photonics within the European Union.”
