Milan-based Ephos, the producer of glass-based photonic chips, introduced on Monday that it has secured $8.5M (roughly €7.6M) in a Seed funding spherical led by Starlight Ventures.
Different buyers, together with Collaborative Fund, Exor Ventures, 2100 Ventures, and Unruly Capital, amongst others, in addition to angel buyers Joe Zadeh (former Vice President at Airbnb), Diego Piacentini (former Senior Vice President at Amazon), and Simone Severini (Common Supervisor, Quantum Applied sciences, Amazon Internet Providers), additionally participated within the spherical.
“Securing this funding and opening our Milan facility is a crucial milestone for Ephos. Our glass-based photonic chips are set to rework not simply quantum computing and AI, however the broader computational infrastructure of the longer term,” says Andrea Rocchetto, CEO and co-founder at Ephos.
“By addressing power inefficiencies and enhancing efficiency throughout industries, from knowledge facilities to safe communications, we’re laying the muse for the subsequent technology of computing know-how,” provides Rocchetto.
Alongside its Milan headquarters and new manufacturing facility, the funding may also go in direction of working and rising its San Francisco group.
In addition to funding, the corporate has additionally introduced the opening of its state-of-the-art analysis and manufacturing facility in Milan, the world’s first devoted to producing glass-based quantum
photonic circuits.
As well as, the Italian firm has acquired €450K in non-dilutive funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) and NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator (DIANA).
Additionally, Ephos has been chosen as one among simply 10 corporations out of a pool exceeding 1,300 candidates.
Ephos: Ship glass-based photonic chips at-scale
Led by Andrea Rocchetto, Ephos designs and manufactures glass-based built-in photonic circuits that energy probably the most superior classical and quantum gadgets.
In accordance with the corporate’s claims, its know-how will increase the pace and power effectivity of superior quantum computing, communications, and sensing gadgets.
Ephos’s chips, constructed on glass substrates, are designed to cut back sign loss, which is without doubt one of the predominant obstacles in constructing a quantum pc.
In quantum computing, data can’t be duplicated or copied, so past a sure stage of sign loss, it turns into not possible to create a brand new sign to interchange a misplaced one.
Ephos’s engineered chips minimise sign loss, permitting its prospects to create scalable photonic techniques extra effectively.
The corporate says that its applied sciences have a variety of classical purposes past quantum computing, together with knowledge centres the place photonic chips are more and more getting used to cut back hovering power footprints.
Ephos makes use of in-house chips and depends solely on US and EU suppliers.
The investor
Starlight is a enterprise capital agency for founders addressing the world’s most urgent challenges and alternatives.
“We see super potential in Ephos’s glass-based photonic chips to revolutionise the way forward for computing,” says Kike Miralles, Principal at Starlight Ventures.
“As AI and quantum developments problem the bounds of our present infrastructure, Ephos stands out with its capability to considerably cut back sign loss and enhance power effectivity. This innovation not solely meets the rising calls for for sooner, extra environment friendly platforms but in addition opens the door to new potentialities in quantum computing and communication applied sciences throughout a number of industries,” provides Miralles.
