Voyant Photonics, co-founded by Chris Phare and Steven Miller, is developing a new category of LiDAR sensors for machine perception. The company leverages commercially available, scalable semiconductor fabrication processes that combine thousands of optical and electrical components onto a single chip. Its LiDAR system contains thousands of optical components fabricated on a single semiconductor chip, enabling mass production similar to how computer chips are made. Voyant targets transportation, robotics, and monitoring applications and cites broader markets including industrial automation and consumer electronics. The company raised $15.4M in Series A funding. Voyant Photonics builds fingertip-scale lidar using silicon photonics and optical phased arrays to produce a strong, coherent beam from a chip-sized device. Its approach carefully alters the phase of light on-chip to avoid interference and uses a frequency-modulated continuous-wave technique that measures velocity as well as distance. The design combines transmitter and receiver in one piece and the company claims performance comparable to larger lidars despite the tiny form factor. Voyant's devices can be manufactured using standard photonics processes, aiding the transition from research to product development. Founders Steven Miller and Chris Phare emerged from Columbia University's Lipson Nanophotonics Group. The team is targeting automotive, drones, robotics, augmented reality and other markets and is talking with potential partners to determine application-specific specs.

Total raised

$20M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Jan 2022