Staera announces $4.6m funding for LED-based data centre chips
Staera Semiconductor has emerged from stealth mode with an optical data link technology called Lightwire that combines silicon CMOS circuits, GaN LED light sources and SiN waveguides into one chip.
The company, formerly known as New Silicon Corporation (spun out from a research group within the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology) has raised $4.6m in pre-seed funding to launch its optical interconnect technology, led by Openspace Capital with participation from SGInnovate, Black Kite Capital, 28 Holdings, In Group, and Decimus Technologies.
The company has built GaN LEDs into silicon chips in commercial foundries since 2016 with processes that now run at 98 to 99 percent yield. Staera says Lightwire technology can move data using less than a tenth of the energy of today’s best optical links. So moving 24 terabytes/s would take under 50 watts with Lightwire, compared with nearly a kilowatt using co-packaged optics.
"AI's bottleneck is no longer how fast chips compute, but how fast and far they can move data," said Andrew Kim, CEO of Staera. "Copper performance plummets over the mm-to-metre distances that matter most in AI accelerators, and bolt-on optics add power and complexity. We build the light into the chip, the entire optical link inside a chip, so the connection gets smaller, cooler and faster with each generation. This funding takes Lightwire from the lab to customers, and the Staera name marks that move."
The pre-seed round marks Staera's shift from research to commercial product. The company will use the funding to advance its technology, expand its team into the US, and deepen engagement with its customers and supply chain partners, targeting commercial release in 2030.
“Staera is addressing one of AI infrastructure’s most urgent challenges: moving vast amounts of data between chips without a corresponding rise in power, heat and complexity,” said Hian Goh, co-founder, Openspace Capital. “Its ability to build optical links directly into silicon offers a compelling path to faster, more efficient, and more scalable AI systems. We backed Staera because of the strength of its technology, the depth of its team and its potential to define a new category in semiconductor connectivity.”
Staera's technology has already drawn industry recognition. In May 2026, the company won the 3rd ECTC Start-up Competition at the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), themed 'The Light Age: Strategic Investment in Photonics to Power the Next Computing Era'. The same month, it placed runner-up at the 2026 Lam Capital Venture Competition, run by Lam Research in Fremont, California.
