Q.ANT Secures $72M to Commercialize Photonic Computing Tech
Q.ANT, a developer of photonic processing technologies, has raised €62 million (~$72.1 million) in a series A financing round. The funds will serve to accelerate the commercialization of the company's photonic processors for AI and high-performance computing, as the company initiates the commercial rollout of its light-based processor to address rising AI energy and scalability demands.
“This investment proves that Europe has both the ambition and the capital to lead — and gives us the strong partners we need to pursue our mission and help shape the future of computing,” said Michael Förtsch, founder and CEO of Q.ANT. Förtsch founded the company, a spin-off from TRUMPF, in 2018.
Built on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), the Q.ANT native processing server integrates into modern data centers as a plug-in co-processor. By 2030, Q.ANT said, the company aims to make its photonic processing technology a foundational pillar of global AI systems. The processing server is available for early access evaluation in a format that is natively compatible with current programming languages and AI software ecosystems, according to the company.
Q.ANT unveiled a photonics-based native processing unit solution based on the company's light empowered native arithmetic (LENA) compute architecture in November 2024. According to the company, real-world tests now promise up to 30× energy efficiency, 50× performance improvement, and the potential to increase data center capacity by 100× — without the need for complex active cooling systems.
Q.ANT previously led the multi-institute PhoQuant quantum computing project, an undertaking that sought to build a quantum computer behind €50 million in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The company has also previously participated on initiatives targeting the development of quantum sensing solutions and quantum photonic chips. Earlier this year, Q.ANT launched a dedicated production line for TFLN-based chips as it aimed to accelerate the production of processors for AI applications. Q.ANT has invested at least €14 million in machinery and equipment to complement the line.
The current funding round was co-led by Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners, and imec.xpand, with participation from L-Bank, Verve Ventures, EXF Alpha of Venionaire Capital, LEA Partners, Onsight Ventures, and TRUMPF.
Q.ANT CEO and founder Michael Förtsch. Courtesy of Q.ANT GmbH.
The funding will also further enable Q.ANT to scale production, grow its team across disciplines, and expand to the U.S. to support a growing number of customer deployments, it said. Q.ANT is adding two semiconductor professionals to its advisory board: Hermann Hauser, founder of ARM and Hermann Eul, former member of the Infineon Management Board and former corporate vice president and general manager of Intel.
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