Polaris Electro-Optics wins seed investment of $3 million
Polaris Electro-Optics, a Colorado-based photonics startup, has announced the completion of its seed financing round, resulting in an investment of $3 million. The company says it leverages patented material and design innovations to offer the highest-speed, most energy-efficient integrated photonics products to the communications and computing industries. The funding round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and garnered support from new investor Buff Gold Ventures as well as pre-seed investor, M Ventures. As part of this milestone, Bernard Lupien of Rhapsody Venture Partners will join Polaris’ board of directors.
Jason Sickler, CEO of Polaris, emphasised the significance of this financing round, stating: “The addition of Rhapsody and Buff Gold Ventures as shareholders, along with the unwavering support from M Ventures, underscores the vast potential of our platform technology to revolutionise the communications and computation sectors. To meet the ever-growing demands of these markets, we must deliver unparallelled speed, exceptional energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and stability. In all respects, Polaris’ technology stands unrivalled.”
Bernard Lupien, general partner at Rhapsody Venture Partners, underlined the remarkable potential of Polaris' platform, commenting: "We've conducted thorough assessments of various technologies aimed at continually enhancing the speed and efficiency of optical communications. We believe that Polaris' platform has the most promising potential for solving the acute data transfer bottlenecks that the industry is facing. This funding will be strategically allocated towards advancing material and design innovation. It will further enable Polaris Electro-Optics to showcase high-speed, high-efficiency devices designed for optical interconnect systems, reaffirming their commitment to transforming the optical technology landscape.”
Daniel Franke, investment director at M Ventures and board director in the company, said: “Our excitement for Polaris Electro-Optics’ potential to deliver a step-function change to the silicon photonics roadmap has only increased since our pre-seed investment, and we are more than glad to double down with our seed round investment.”
Tobias Egle, board observer and analyst at M Ventures, added: “Through our existing investments in the photonics, optics, and high-performance compute sectors, we recognise an unmet and rapidly growing need for a next generation of electro-optic modulators. We believe that Polaris’ technology platform will be integral to enable the anticipated fundamental trends in high-performance compute, such as the shift towards datacentre disaggregation. Next to the intrinsic advantages in modulation physics, we see the clear route towards mass manufacturability and back-end integration with existing fabrications processes as a major differentiator.”
Sally Hatcher, managing partner of Buff Gold Ventures, said: “We are delighted to join the collaborative team of investors supporting Polaris Electro-Optics. The disruptive intellectual property licensed from the University of Colorado, combined with a strong team of experienced founders and technologists, gives Polaris a solid foundation for quick innovation and early traction.”
