LightSpeed Photonics has raised $6.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures, with participation from 500 Global, Indian Accelerator, 8X Ventures, Java Capital and Bay Area angel investors. The latest round brings the company’s total funding to $8.5 million, including grants.
The funds will be used to advance LightSpeed’s R&D capabilities, shorten product development cycles and strengthen collaboration with OEM, EMS and ODM partners. The company is working toward commercial deployment of its optical interconnect systems designed for modern data-centre workloads.
Founded in 2021 by Rohin Y and Ramana Pamidighantam, LightSpeed Photonics develops compact optical interconnect solutions that support high-speed data movement for AI and high-performance computing environments. Its laser-based technology aims to provide improved throughput, lower energy usage and smaller hardware footprints.
The company’s short-wavelength optical platform is built to deliver up to four times faster data transfer while consuming half the power of traditional alternatives. It also claims a significantly lower carbon footprint.
LightSpeed addresses sectors that depend on large-scale computational infrastructure, including AI, HPC, edge networks, telecom, aerospace, satellites and precision manufacturing.
