As the world races toward more powerful artificial intelligence and increasingly complex cloud workloads, one Leeds based company is betting that the future of computing will not rely solely on electrons. Optalysys, a pioneer in photonic computing, has secured fresh investment to push light based computation closer to mainstream adoption and to address the growing demand for energy efficient, high performance processing.
A Major Series A Extension
Optalysys has raised twenty three million pounds in a Series A extension round led by Northern Gritstone. The round included participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon and the United Kingdom government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund. The investment strengthens the company’s position as one of the most advanced players bringing photonic technology out of research labs and into commercial computing environments.
The funds will be used to accelerate the commercial roll out of the company’s proprietary photonic chips and continue development of its programmable computing technology for artificial intelligence, cloud and advanced security applications.
A New Approach to High Density Computing
At the core of Optalysys’ work is an approach that integrates computation and data movement on the same chip using silicon photonics. Light based processing enables data to move and calculate simultaneously at far greater speed and with lower energy consumption than traditional electronic architectures.
The company aims to build a programmable, high density computing layer designed to support some of the most demanding workloads in modern computing. This includes generative artificial intelligence, post quantum cryptography and large scale simulation tasks that strain conventional hardware.
According to chief executive and co founder Dr Nick New, photonic computing marks a significant turning point in the evolution of computation. He explains that the ability to move and process data at extremely high speeds with ultra low energy consumption unlocks efficiency gains that cannot be achieved with traditional processors. The latest investment reflects both the scale of the opportunity and the confidence in Optalysys’ technology.
Advancing Secure and Encrypted Computing
A key application for the company’s platform is fully homomorphic encryption. This advanced cryptographic method allows data to be processed while remaining encrypted, eliminating the need to expose sensitive information during computation. As cloud systems and enterprise environments handle more confidential data, demand for this capability is increasing rapidly.
Photonic systems are particularly well suited to these workloads because they require immense computational capacity and efficiency. Optalysys is positioning its hardware as foundational for secure cloud infrastructure of the future.
The company’s early implementations are already deployed in its LightLocker Node servers, which support encrypted blockchain and distributed ledger applications. These nodes demonstrate how photonic processing can tackle complex computational challenges without sacrificing security or performance.
Scaling Toward Global Adoption
The new funding will also support Optalysys’ expansion into the United States. The company plans to establish an on the ground presence within the country’s photonics and semiconductor ecosystem, enabling deeper collaboration with industry partners and opening new pathways for commercial adoption.
The United States is home to an expanding network of quantum computing labs, semiconductor foundries and cloud infrastructure providers, making it a natural market for Optalysys as it scales its technology.
A Path Toward the Future of Computing
Optalysys’ long term ambition is to bring photonic computing into mainstream cloud infrastructure, creating an entirely new class of processors that can tackle workloads beyond the limits of traditional electronic chips. As demand for artificial intelligence accelerates and global energy concerns grow, the company’s light based approach offers a promising alternative to conventional architectures.
With new funding, a growing commercial footprint and a clear vision for a more efficient computational future, Optalysys is positioning itself as a key player in redefining how the next generation of cloud and AI systems will operate.