Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 12 July 2023 – SMART Photonics, the Dutch 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 strategic players from the semiconductor industry (ASML, NXP and VDL Groep) as well as financial institutions (ING, BOP Impact Ventures and Deep Tech Fund, which is part of Invest-NL and 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 funding 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.
With this new round of funding, SMART Photonics will be able to strengthen its role as the leading manufacturer of next generation chips in a growing, resilient European photonic value chain. SMART Photonics will use the funds to further 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, Chief Executive Officer 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 circuits (PICs).”
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