Cnuic Technologies Raises $3M Pre-Seed Funding Led By Tensor Ventures

Headquartered in Edinburgh, the company has built a working prototype of a new photolithography device that uses light to enable fast, reconfigurable production of photonic chips with advanced 3D control something previously not possible.

This breakthrough could allow photonic chip production at a much larger scale and potentially shift the global semiconductor balance of power in Europe’s favour. Cnuic believes this could represent the most significant advancement in the field since the invention of the transistor.

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The semiconductor industry is undergoing major change as traditional silicon chips approach their physical limits. Unlike silicon chips that use electrons, photonic chips use light (photons) to transmit data, enabling much higher speeds without overheating. However their adoption has been limited by high complexity and manufacturing costs.

Cnuic’s approach aims to overcome these challenges with potential to significantly reduce energy and cooling costs in data centres. In artificial intelligence, photonic chips could speed up model training by removing communication bottlenecks between large numbers of processors.

The technology may also enable advances in areas such as metalenses, 3D photonic crystals, AR/VR waveguides, and flexible optical components.

Co-founder Omar Durrani said that every major leap in human capability comes from learning to better use a new medium. “We learned to use electrons. Now we are learning to use light. Cnuic is building the tools that make that possible at scale."

Martin Drdúl, co-founder of Tensor Ventures, who oversaw the investment alongside Ondřej Lipold, adds: “From a deep tech perspective, this is a completely new technology and a major breakthrough that could mean a whole new role for Europe in the semiconductor industry.”