Scintil Photonics Raises $58 Million Series B to Scale Integrated Photonics for AI and Data Centers
Scintil Photonics, a Grenoble, France–based company specializing in integrated photonics for data centers and AI infrastructure, has raised $58 million (approximately €50 million) in a Series B funding round to expand production of its next-generation photonic engines and accelerate global growth.
The round was co-led by Yotta Capital Partners and NGP Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, BNP Paribas Développement, and existing investors including Supernova Invest, Bpifrance Digital Venture, Innovacom, Bosch Ventures, and the Applied Ventures ITIC Innovation Fund (AVITIC).
The new capital will be used to scale production of Scintil’s silicon photonics platform, expand its international footprint, and hire additional staff across engineering, operations, and business development. The company also plans to establish a stronger presence in the United States to serve hyperscale data center operators and AI infrastructure providers.
At the core of Scintil’s technology is its proprietary SHIP™ (Scintil Heterogeneous Integration Photonics) platform, which integrates lasers, modulators, and photodiodes directly onto a single silicon chip. This approach enables scalable, high-performance optical communication systems while reducing power consumption and manufacturing complexity. By combining multiple optical components into a single photonic integrated circuit (PIC), Scintil delivers improved performance, cost efficiency, and compactness compared to traditional multi-component optical systems.
One of Scintil’s flagship products in development is LEAF Light™, a DWDM-native (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) light engine designed for next-generation co-packaged optics (CPO) used in AI data centers and high-performance computing. LEAF Light™ offers up to 6.4 Tbps/mm edge bandwidth while consuming significantly less power than conventional optical modules, enabling faster, more energy-efficient communication between GPUs and CPUs.
Scintil operates as a fabless semiconductor company, designing its photonic chips while leveraging external manufacturing foundries for large-scale production. Its roots trace back to more than 15 years of research at CEA-Leti, one of Europe’s leading research institutes for microelectronics and nanotechnology. The company was founded in 2018 by Sylvie Menezo, who now serves as Chief Technology Officer, and is led by Matt Crowley as Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to this Series B round, Scintil raised approximately €13.5 million in 2022 in a funding round led by Bosch Ventures, bringing its total raised at that time to around €17.5 million. With additional investment from Applied Ventures and ITIC, the company had accumulated roughly €19 million before this latest funding, which now brings its total capital raised to more than €70 million.
The company’s mission is to deliver energy-efficient optical solutions for the fast-growing demands of AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and telecom. By integrating optical communication directly onto silicon, Scintil aims to reduce the physical and energy costs associated with the massive data transfers required by AI systems and high-bandwidth workloads.
The global surge in demand for AI and high-performance computing has increased the need for faster, more efficient interconnect technologies inside data centers. Scintil’s platform addresses these needs by enabling optical connections that deliver higher throughput at lower latency and with reduced energy consumption.
With its new funding, Scintil Photonics plans to accelerate product qualification, scale its supply chain, and begin high-volume production of its LEAF Light™ engines. The company also intends to expand collaborations with semiconductor foundries, packaging partners, and hyperscale computing customers. As the AI and data center industries continue to push the limits of existing electrical interconnects, Scintil’s integrated photonics technology could play a pivotal role in enabling the next generation of high-speed, energy-efficient computing infrastructure.
