Lightelligence, a US-based photonic circuit chipmaker spun out from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), raised $10m in a seed round on Friday.
The round was led by Baidu Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet company Baidu, according to multiple press reports, though Lightelligence is not listed as a portfolio company on the firm’s website. The round also featured assorted, unnamed industry leaders.
Founded in September 2017, Lightelligence is developing computer chips that rely on light signals rather than electrical signals. The approach boasts significant performance boosts over current technology, making it particularly relevant for artificial intelligence applications.
The technology is based on research at MIT into nanophotonics, deep learning and optical computing. The spinout was established by MIT’s commercialisation arm Technology Licensing Office and co-founded by Yichen Shen, who now acts as chief executive.
Shen co-authored a research paper into the technology with Nicholas Harris and nine others in Nature Photonics in June 2017. Harris and Shen later parted ways for unspecified reasons, with Harris securing an $11m series A round for his spinout Lightmatter yesterday.
