Lightium offers photonic integrated circuit (PIC) foundry and design services built on a proprietary, production-grade thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. The company aims to accelerate customers' photonic breakthroughs by delivering high photonic performance, a simplified and cost-effective supply chain, and rapid scale-up from prototyping to large-volume manufacturing. Its solution is positioned for applications across Telecom, Datacom, Quantum Computing, AI, and Space. Lightium raised $7M in Seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to accelerate commercialisation of its production-grade TFLN PIC foundry services. The round was led by Vsquared Ventures and Lakestar. The company is based in Zurich and was founded by Dr. Amir Ghadimi, Dr. Frédéric Loizeau, and MIT professor and serial entrepreneur Prof. Dirk Englund. Lightium builds a Thin‑Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) photonic platform designed to boost communication bandwidth and cut energy use in data centers and telecom networks. Its TFLN technology delivers speeds surpassing 1.6 Tb/s while reducing power consumption. The company is commercializing the platform and plans to transition manufacturing to a commercial CMOS fab. Using the InnoSuisse grant, Lightium will refine its manufacturing process and PDK specifications over the next nine months. Beta access to Lightium's foundry services is targeted for Q4 2024. Co‑founders include CEO Amir Ghadimi and Chief Revenue Officer Frédéric Loizeau; the company also recently won the first stage of Venture Kick to support go‑to‑market activities and IP work.

Total raised

$10M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Sep 2024