Leeds-Based Optalysys Raises €26 To Support Photonic Computing Development

The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the UK government’s NSSIF.

“We are at a defining moment in the evolution of computing. Photonic computing opens up fundamentally new capabilities, allowing data to be moved and processed with far greater speed and efficiency. This investment validates both the scale of the opportunity ahead and our ability to execute against it. It allows us to expand into new markets and take an important step towards making photonic computing a mainstream part of cloud infrastructure,” said Dr Nick New, CEO and co-founder of Optalysys.

Founded in 2013 by Dr. New (CEO) and Robert Todd (CTO), Optalysys is focused on enabling secure computing by harnessing the power of light to accelerate always-encrypted data processing. The company argues that traditional electronic computing is nearing its physical limits as AI and cloud workloads continue to grow exponentially.

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According to Optalysys, Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) allows data to be shared and analysed while remaining encrypted, but its practical use depends on significant performance acceleration something conventional electronic systems are increasingly unable to deliver.

Optalysys addresses this challenge through optical computing, developing hardware that accelerates FHE beyond the capabilities of electrical computing. Its technology integrates data movement and processing on a single chip combining silicon photonics with digital technologies to deliver high computational performance while reducing the carbon footprint associated with energy intensive digital systems.

The company is developing a programmable, high-density computing layer designed to handle demanding workloads, including generative AI and post-quantum algorithms.

“Recent acquisitions in the semiconductor industry have highlighted the role that photonics can play in addressing the limits of electronic computing, particularly in processing capability and power consumption, resulting from the demands of training and running even larger AI models. Optalysys’ approach uniquely combines data movement and compute within the same package. Expanding to the US is an exciting and natural next step for us, so that we can tap into its strong photonics ecosystem and the immense talent located in Silicon Valley,” said Robert Todd, CTO and co-founder of Optalysys.

Early implementations of Optalysys’ FHE technology are already in use through its LightLocker™ Node servers, launched last year. The company describes these as the world’s first dedicated hardware solution purpose built for encrypted blockchain applications.

About Optalysys

Optalysys is a photonic computing company focused on enabling secure computing. By harnessing the power of light, it accelerates always-encrypted data technologies, making secure data processing, sharing, and collaboration faster, more efficient and scalable for next-generation applications across AI, blockchain, and cloud computing.