This Dutch Startup Just Raised $11M to Fix AI's Laser Problem

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-21

Photon Bridge, a startup out of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, just closed a €10 million round (roughly $11 million) to solve a problem most people haven't even noticed yet: AI needs lasers. A whole lot of them. Here's the thing. As AI clusters grow from thousands of chips to hundreds of thousands, moving data between those processors becomes the real bottleneck. Optical connections handle that job far better than traditional electrical wiring, which is why optics are creeping closer and closer to the chips themselves. And every one of those connections needs a laser to supply the light. ### Who's putting money in The round was co-led by new investors Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital. Existing backers Innovation Industries, Faber, and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) all increased their stakes. That follows a €4.75 million seed round in January 2025 led by Innovation Industries, so clearly the people who know this space keep coming back for more. "Every new wave of compute creates new bottlenecks further down the supply chain, and lasers are the next one," said Ion Hauer, Investment Partner at APEX Ventures. He pointed to the company's mix of deep photonics expertise and a believable path to large-scale manufacturing. ### The manufacturing problem nobody talks about Photon Bridge was founded in 2020 by Rui Santos and Xaveer Leijtens. The company builds high-power, multi-wavelength laser sources for next-generation optical interconnects in AI data centers. The core insight is simple once you hear it. Today's high-power laser supply chain was built for telecom and subsea networks, where volumes are tiny compared to what AI will demand. As CEO Paul Marchal puts it: "AI could transform the laser from a specialist photonics component into something that has to be manufactured at semiconductor scale." Rather than pushing a few lasers to ever-higher power levels, Photon Bridge combines and multiplexes light from many lower-power semiconductor lasers. That approach lowers power densities, makes individual lasers more tolerant of manufacturing defects, and improves production yield. The platform delivers up to 40 mW of optical power per wavelength per fiber and can be produced across multiple indium phosphide (InP) foundries. ### Why yield is the real story Here's a quick rundown of what actually matters: - AI clusters are scaling fast, and data movement is becoming a defining performance limit - Co-packaged optics, which place optical connectivity right next to the chips, are accelerating the shift - The industry will soon need millions of laser sources per year, not thousands - Photon Bridge designed its architecture around manufacturing yield from day one Marchal summed up the shift well: "We are moving towards enormous systems in which hundreds of thousands of processors have to operate together. Instead of making individual lasers increasingly powerful and difficult to manufacture, we move that scaling challenge into the architecture." The company also rebranded from Photon IP to Photon Bridge in September 2025 and brought Marchal on as CEO. For anyone tracking the European startup incorporation scene, this is one to watch. The laser may be about to go from niche photonics part to everyday semiconductor product, and a small Dutch team is betting it can be the one making them.