Morphotonics, a Dutch deep-tech company that makes large-area nanoimprint lithography equipment, raised more than €40 million in an extension to its Series B round, according to TechCrunch and Tech.eu. The round included existing investors 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries and BOM, along with new investor Invest-NL, the European Innovation Council Fund, family office Ernij Next and the European Investment Bank.
Morphotonics presses nano- and microscopic patterns into liquid resin before curing it with UV light, a process used to manufacture waveguides for AR glasses and other optical components, Tech.eu reported. The company will use the funding to expand production of its Cypris platform, grow its engineering and commercial teams, and build out supplier and after-sales networks, Tech.eu reported.
The funding also backs a push into optical components for data centers, where photonic interconnects are replacing copper to move data with less energy loss, TechCrunch reported. Morphotonics said its next generation of devices is already under construction, with annual production capacity above 6 million waveguides and deliveries starting early next year, according to TechCrunch. "AI is moving off the screen and into the real world, into glasses, spatial systems, and a new generation of intelligent devices," CEO Hugo da Silva said, according to Tech.eu.
A 12-year-old optics manufacturer betting new money on data center interconnects instead of another consumer display is a small signal of where its customers say the growth actually is: not the next gadget screen, but moving light instead of electricity between servers.