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 traders, together with Collaborative Fund, Exor Ventures, 2100 Ventures, and Unruly Capital, amongst others, in addition to angel traders 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 vital 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 long run,” says Andrea Rocchetto, CEO and co-founder at Ephos.
“By addressing vitality inefficiencies and enhancing efficiency throughout industries, from knowledge facilities to safe communications, we’re laying the inspiration for the subsequent technology of computing expertise,” provides Rocchetto.
Alongside its Milan headquarters and new manufacturing facility, the funding will even go in the direction of working and rising its San Francisco group.
Apart from 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 in every of simply 10 firms 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 essentially the most superior classical and quantum gadgets.
In response to the corporate’s claims, its expertise will increase the velocity and vitality effectivity of superior quantum computing, communications, and sensing gadgets.
Ephos’s chips, constructed on glass substrates, are designed to scale back sign loss, which is among the fundamental obstacles in constructing a quantum laptop.
In quantum computing, info 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 clients to create scalable photonic methods 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 scale back hovering vitality 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 large 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 boundaries of our present infrastructure, Ephos stands out with its means to considerably cut back sign loss and enhance vitality 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.
