Effect Photonics Secures $38 Million in Series D Financing

Effect Photonics, a developer of integrated optical solutions, announced this week that it has secured $38 million in Series D financing.
The round was led by the Innovative Industries Strategic Partnership Fund, with strong support from Dutch pension funds PMT and PME, as well as co-investors Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund and other existing investors.
This injection of capital is expected to provide Effect Photonics with a significant boost in solution development and commercialization, further accelerating its volume growth to better meet the growing customer demand in the market.
Effect Photonics is uniquely positioned to blend optical system-on-a-chip with packaging technology to create high-performance modules for industry-standard and customized form factors, all with tunable optics.
Roberto Marcoccia, CEO of Effect Photonics, commented: "We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Innovative Industries Strategic Partnership Fund and all our existing investors for their trust and support. Their enthusiastic commitment not only marks the culmination of a dynamic year for our company's business, but also further solidifies our leadership position in the rapidly growing coherent transceiver market."
Vincent Kamphorst, Investment Director of the Innovative Industries Strategic Partners Fund, also expressed optimism about the investment, "We are confident that Effect Photonics not only has superior technical capabilities, but also a strong team, adequate capital and comprehensive support that will help them accelerate their integrated photonic solutions and market penetration."
In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between imec, a nanotechnology and photonics research center, the Spanish government, and the local government of Andalusia, which clearly expresses their commitment to establish a pilot line dedicated to chip technology in the Málaga region of Andalusia.
The construction of the new facility is intended to further expand imec's existing 300mm advanced CMOS process line in Leuven, Belgium, to develop new 300mm processes and to introduce new materials that are difficult to realize with standard CMOS process combinations. imec's announcement states, "This facility will meet the industry's urgent needs for research and development, prototyping for opening the way for promising new technology manufacturing."
The new facility is designed to capitalize on the significant benefits of 300mm semiconductor process technology to drive the development of new applications in a number of areas, including healthcare, life sciences, photonics, augmented and virtual reality, and precision sensing. It will utilize non-standard processes that are currently incompatible with semiconductor manufacturing processes, complementing the existing expertise and infrastructure in Leuven, and the strong linkages between the two sites will provide strong support for the development of new technologies.
The imec statement added: "The next negotiations will focus on building a strong public-private partnership between imec, the Spanish government and the Andalusian government. Both governments have made it clear that they will support the construction of the new plant, including the provision of state-of-the-art equipment."