Wove Photonic, a San Francisco-based photonics hardware company engineering the next frontier of light-based integrated circuits, today announced it has closed a $7.5 million seed funding round. The round was led by Deeptech Labs, with participation from a group of strategic angel investors with deep expertise in photonics, semiconductors, and optical networking. The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Wove Photonic's proprietary silicon nitride photonic platform, expand the company's engineering and research team, and advance prototype photonic computing and LiDAR products toward commercial launch.

Why Now: The Photonics Inflection Point

The photonics industry is at an inflection point. The scaling of conventional silicon electronics is slowing, AI workloads are driving unprecedented demand for energy-efficient computing infrastructure, and autonomous systems require sensing capabilities that only photonics can deliver at the required performance and cost. The combination of these market forces — alongside significant advances in silicon photonics manufacturing at leading semiconductor foundries — has created a rare window of opportunity for deep tech companies that can bridge the gap between research-stage photonic technologies and commercial products.

Wove Photonic was founded in 2022 by a team of researchers who recognized that the key missing piece in this ecosystem was a manufacturable, ultra-low-loss photonic integration platform that could support the diverse requirements of computing, sensing, and quantum information applications. The company's silicon nitride on insulator (SiN-OI) platform achieves propagation losses below 0.1 dB/cm across a broad wavelength range, enabling photonic circuits of unprecedented complexity without unacceptable signal degradation.

What the Funding Will Enable

The $7.5 million seed round will fund three key development programs over the next 18 months:

Photonic Computing Accelerator: Wove Photonic will complete development of its first-generation optical matrix multiply accelerator chip, targeting AI inference applications in data centers. The chip implements programmable optical neural network layers with energy efficiency targets exceeding 100 TOPS/W, compared to approximately 10 TOPS/W for leading GPU-based solutions. Customer pilots with two hyperscale data center operators are planned to begin by end of 2025.

Solid-State LiDAR Module: The company will complete development of its large-aperture optical phased array LiDAR module, targeting the industrial robotics and autonomous vehicle markets. Current prototypes achieve 120-degree field of view with 0.1-degree angular resolution at 200-meter range. The product roadmap targets a compact module suitable for integration into vehicle body panels by 2026.

Team and Infrastructure Expansion: Wove Photonic will grow its team from 22 to approximately 35 people, adding photonic chip designers, systems engineers, and business development personnel. The company will also expand its laboratory facilities and establish dedicated test and characterization infrastructure to support increased design iteration velocity.

"This funding represents a major step forward in our mission to make photonics technology commercially viable at scale. The support from Deeptech Labs validates our technology approach and gives us the resources to execute on an ambitious roadmap. We believe the next two years will be transformative for the entire photonics industry, and Wove Photonic is positioned at the center of that transformation." — James Lee, CEO and Co-Founder

Investor Perspective

Deeptech Labs made the investment after conducting extensive technical due diligence on Wove Photonic's core platform technology, manufacturing readiness, and competitive positioning. The firm has a strong track record of backing transformative deep tech companies at the seed stage, with previous investments in companies spanning quantum computing, advanced materials, and next-generation semiconductor platforms.

"We have been closely watching the photonics space for several years, and Wove Photonic stands out for the depth and practicality of their technology approach," said a partner at Deeptech Labs. "James and Nina have built one of the strongest photonics teams we have encountered, combining world-class scientific expertise with the engineering discipline to translate breakthrough research into manufacturable products. We are excited to partner with them at this critical stage."

Technology Differentiation

Wove Photonic's core technological differentiation rests on its proprietary silicon nitride photonic platform, which addresses the two key limitations of existing photonic integration platforms: excessive propagation loss and narrow operational wavelength range. The company's platform achieves:

  • Propagation loss <0.1 dB/cm across 400-2350 nm wavelength range
  • Wafer-scale fabrication compatibility with tier-one silicon photonics foundries
  • Co-integration capability with active photonic components (lasers, modulators, detectors)
  • Thermal stability enabling operation over a wide temperature range without active compensation
  • 14 filed patents covering waveguide designs, fabrication processes, and system architectures

These platform properties enable photonic circuits of a complexity that was previously confined to specialized research environments, bringing them within reach of commercial deployment for the first time.

About Wove Photonic

Wove Photonic is a deep tech photonics hardware company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2022, the company is developing next-generation photonic integrated circuits for computing, sensing, and quantum information applications. Wove Photonic's proprietary silicon nitride photonic platform enables ultra-low-loss photonic integration across a broad wavelength range, supporting photonic circuit complexity that was previously achievable only in specialized research settings. The company is backed by Deeptech Labs and a group of strategic angel investors with expertise in photonics and deep tech commercialization.

For more information, visit wovephotonic.tech or contact hello@wovephotonic.tech.