From spin-out to scale-up: OpenLight’s $34M funding

Part 1: Start-up funding

OpenLight Photonics, a Santa Barbara-based start-up specialising in silicon photonics, has raised $34 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round.

The start-up will use the funding to expand production and its photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design staff.

“We’re starting to get customers taking in production mask sets, so it’s about scaling operations and how we handle production,” says OpenLight CEO, Adam Carter (pictured). The start-up needs more PIC designers to work with customers.

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Users embrace OpenLight's silicon photonics platform

OpenLight, the open silicon photonics platform provider, can point to a successful 2024 signing up new customers. 

In 2023, OpenLight had three customers bringing photonic integrated circuit (PIC) designs to market. OpenLight has since added 14 more.  

OpenLight was formed in 2022 when Juniper Networks carved out its silicon photonics arm. Synopsys acquired a three-quarters stake in OpenLight, while Juniper retained a quarter.

“In the past, the company hadn’t really done any revenue, including when they were in Juniper,” says Adam Carter, OpenLight’s CEO (pictured). “We’ve seen a ten times increase and shown that we can be very profitable.”

The start-up has been creating industry partnerships to better serve its customers' circuit design, chip manufacturing, and packaging needs.

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DustPhotonics raises funding for 800G and 1.6T modules

• DustPhotonics has raised $24 million in funding.
• The start-up has taped out its 200 gigabit-per-lane optical chip.
• DustPhotonics expects the 1.6-terabit module market to ramp, starting year-end.

Ronnen Lovinger

DustPhotonics, which develops chips for transmit optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs) for 400 and 800-gigabit pluggable optical modules, has raised $24 million. The funding extends its Series B funding round.

"When you start ramping up products, you have to iron out the creases around supply chain, production, and everything else," says Ronnen Lovinger, CEO of DustPhotonics.

DustPhotonics has several customers and a backlog of orders for its 400 and 800-gigabit photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The company has also taped out its 200 gigabit-per-lane chip and will have products later this year.

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OpenLight's CEO on its silicon photonics strategy

Adam Carter, recently appointed the CEO of OpenLight, discusses the company’s strategy and the market opportunities for silicon photonics.

Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight

Adam Carter’s path to becoming OpenLight’s first CEO is a circuitous one.

OpenLight, a start-up, offers the marketplace an open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers and gain blocks.

Having worked at Cisco and Oclaro, which was acquired by Lumentum in 2018, Carter decided to take six months off. Covid then hit, prolonging his time out.

Carter returned as a consultant working with firms, including a venture capitalist (VC). The VC alerted him about OpenLight’s search for a CEO.

Carter’s interest in OpenLight was immediate. He already knew the technology and OpenLight’s engineering team and recognised the platform’s market potential.

“If it works in the way I think it can work, it [the platform] could be very interesting for many companies who don't have access to the [silicon photonics] technology,” says Carter.

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DustPhotonics readies its first optical engine

• DustPhotonics has a silicon photonics modulator capable of 200 gigabits per lane
• The start-up also has developed a precision laser-attach scheme

 DustPhotonics’s office view

Ronnen Lovinger waves as he approaches the local train station. DustPhotonics’ CEO is taking me to the company’s offices on the outskirts of Modi’in, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The site has a striking view of a landscape also halfway between Israel’s flat coastal plain and the steep hills of Jerusalem.

Lovinger has been CEO of DustPhotonics since 2021. Before that, he was chief operating officer (COO) at Innoviz Technologies, joining the lidar firm after 18 years at Mellanox, now part of Nvidia.

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OpenLight's integrated-laser silicon photonics platform

• OpenLight is an independent silicon photonics company backed by Synopsys and Juniper Networks 
• The company was created by carving out the silicon photonics arm of Juniper
• The establishment of OpenLight and its open platform highlights the growing maturity of silicon photonics as new applications emerge beyond datacom and telecom

Thomas Mader, OpenLight

OpenLight is coming to market with an open silicon photonics platform that includes integrated lasers and gain blocks.

Juniper has a long relationship with Synopsys, using its electronic-photonic design automation (EPDA) tools.

So when Juniper said it was spinning out its silicon photonics group, Synopsys was keen to partner.

The result is OpenLight, of which Synopsys has a 75 per cent stake costing $67.5 million.

Thomas Mader, OpenLight's chief operating officer and formerly head of Juniper's silicon photonics unit, says OpenLight is the first company to offer an open platform that includes monolithically integrated lasers, optical amplifiers and modulators. 

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