Optical Computing Leader Lightmatter Adds $155M in Funding

Photonic computing company Lightmatter has raised $155 million in a series C-2 funding. The company said that it plans to use the financing to expedite growth to meet increasing demand for high-performance computing from AI innovators. Lightmatter also plans to expand its workforce and office footprint.

The MIT spinout is developing silicon photonic technologies that reconstruct how chips calculate and communicate, supporting the computing needs of cloud providers, semiconductor companies, and enterprises. The company provides a full stack of photonics-enabled hardware and software solutions that simultaneously reduce power consumption and increase performance.

Since Lightmatter's previous funding announcement in May, the company has announced plans to open an office in Toronto and grow its workforce by 50%. The company recently named former Google vice president of engineering Danner Stodolsky vice president of data center architecture, and Colin Sturt as its general counsel.

With the current round, which was led by Google Ventures and Viking Global Investors, Lightmatter has raised over $420 million. The company said its valuation stands at $1.2 billion.